Hi, friends. It’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero still waiting on United Launch Alliance to tell us when it will try again to launch the Delta IV Heavy rocket for the 16th and final time.
Pictured above, I had an incredibly close view of the three-core Delta IV on Thursday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It sure was windy and rainy when we were escorted to our press site less than two miles away from pad 37 but as the weather improved, it started to feel like the launch really could happen.
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Mission managers all gave the go for launch but then moments later, the scrub came down. In the remaining minutes of its broadcast, ULA didn’t report what caused the scrub, but later Thursday night we learned it was a technical issue.
As of this writing four days later, ULA still has not said if it’s fixed that pipeline issue, and when the next launch attempt will be.
It could have been this afternoon but instead, I’m reminded of a summer 2020 Delta IV attempt that was also scrubbed within the final minutes of the countdown and ultimately, didn’t launch until a few months later. That mission, like the final mission now, was also launching a spy satellite for the government.
Whenever ULA makes the big announcement we’re waiting for, we’ll let you know the next launch date. I for one can’t wait to see the historic final flight of this long-standing family of rockets.
📧 Send me an email here if you have any space topics you’d like to discuss.
👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After eight years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!