Today an occlusion front passed Kiruna. Why is this interesting? Because today the launch was cancelled because of the weather. Not because it was snowing this morning, but because the sun drove away all the clouds. The weather changed very rapidly and just when we were driving the rocket to the launch tower the winds started. Blowing from the south and having a velocity swinging between 7 and 12 m/s, six on the scale of Beaufort, it was without doubt that we could not launch in the perfectly blue sky. Not only the Stratos can not cope with it, there is also a risk that the Maxus model will tip over.

Because the weather is mild, being above zero for the first time this year, it is not necessary to protect the rocket against the elements at all times. This is why we can first roll back the Maxus building and then put the rocket in the launch tower. In earlier plans the whole rocket was firstly packed in a polystyrene house before the Maxus tower was rolled away. After this the tower should be put in the right position. Because this no longer the case, the tower can be put in the right position before we hang the rocket in it. This is what we did this morning. To fixate the position of the tower a 1000 kg heavy block of concrete was put in the rear legs. Because the tower is all ready in the right position we don’t have to do that tomorrow morning, saving us precious time.

First step is to give the tower the right azimuth angle

To keep the tower in the right place a concrete block of 1 ton is placed on the legs

A picture from the launchtower

Esrange by night

The launch area with from left to right: the skylar tower, The wind tower, the maxus tower (blue with gray), and mockup of the superloki.

one of the hotel rooms were we slept the last two weeks