🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <248@encad.Wichita.NCR.COM> mjohnson@encad.Wichita.NCR.COM writes:
>Has anyone else observed that this schedule leaves the Discovery sitting out
>exposed to the weather for the bulk of the (often violent) Florida summer
>thunderstorm season? What about the distinct possibility of lightning 
>strikes to the launch complex/vehicle????

It's been done before. There is a lightning rod on top of the service tower
on both pads. I'm sure that surviving a Florida thunderstorm is one of the
requirements on most launch vehicles (at least surviving on the ground). The
only thing that might worry NASA is a hurricane (the east coast of Florida
is 'due' for a good one, but they are protected by the Gulf Stream --
hurricanes seem to get deflected by it to North Carolina instead).

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Kurt Hoyt			| ARPA:   kwh@sei.cmu.edu
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