The Fourth of July display at the cape has been scrubbed for the day due to weather.

If they don’t do it tomorrow morning, they’ll be delayed for weeks. Of course, tomorrow morning will also see a much more promising, if less spectacular event, with Masten’s attempt to win Level II of the Lunar Lander Challenge in Mojave. Unfortunately, the weather may not cooperate for that, either. A high is settling in over the Great Basin, and combined with the low over the eastern Pacific off shore, that means Santa Anas (though cold ones this time). There are gusts of 60 mph forecast for the desert this afternoon, and it’s not expected to die down much until later tomorrow. I don’t know what kind of wind conditions Masten has designed for, but if they can handle winds, I’m sure that the steadier the better. There’s got to be a certain point at which they will decide not to fly, not just risking a bad flight, but the vehicle itself. I’ll keep checking in throughout the day, and decide if I’m going to go up in the morning or not.

[Update mid morning]

There is a certain irony that a prize planned with the intent of developing lunar landing technologies would be affected by wind. Of course, a big side benefit for both NASA and those developing the vehicles (though it’s not clear that the former recognizes it) is that it also contributes to technology that could eventually lead to reduced launch costs and increased operability from earth to space.

[Update a couple minutes later]

From Dave Masten’s Facebook notes:

I think we are ready for #ngllc level 2. All tests are done. Last was a nice stable hover of 195sec in 30+ knot winds.

Sounds like it may be worth the trip. Though I wonder how steady the winds were. As I said, I would think that, short of a hurricane, the wind variation is more of an issue than the magnitude per se.