Tropical Storm Erika. Image Credit: NOAA
[SatNews] Tropical storm Erika has moved along enough so that the launch of MUOS-4 from Florida's Cape Canaveral will move forward.
The ULA Atlas V rocket carrying the MUOS-4 payload for the U.S. Navy is confirmed on the Eastern Range for Wednesday, September 2. The mission is set to lift off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch window is 5:59-6:43 a.m. EDT. Today’s L-4 forecast shows a 60 percent chance of favorable weather conditions for launch.
The launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the MUOS-4 mission had been postponed because of uncertainty in the weather conditions associated with Tropical Storm Erika.
The announcement, made late in the day on Friday, August 28, was hours after a teleconference held with the key organizations involved with the planned flight. During the hour-long exchange mission managers noted that they were closely following the Caribbean conditions.
Governor Rick Scott of Florida issued a state of emergency Friday as Tropical Storm Erika headed toward the state after killing at least a 20 people and causing devastating floods in the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, while beginning to lose some strength.
“I declared a state of emergency this morning which allows us to make sure every resource, including the National Guard, the emergency management team, make sure everybody is getting prepared," Scott said during a media briefing in Miami on Friday. Scott said 30 members of the National Guard are pre-positioned, with 8,000 in position to be mobilized.
Governor Rick Scott and Lt. Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera attend a briefing on Tropical Storm Erika at the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Tallahassee, Thursday, August 27, 2015.
(PHOTO/Florida Governor’s Office)
Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said in a televised address late Friday that the island has been set back 20 years in the damage inflicted by the storm.
"This is a period of national tragedy," he said, adding that hundreds of homes, bridges and roads have been destroyed. "We have, in essence, to rebuild Dominica."
Tropical Storm Erika dumped 15 inches of rain on the mountainous island before it cut Friday into Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where it topped trees and power lines.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the system was expected to move north across the island of Hispaniola where the high mountains would weaken it to a tropical depression on Saturday, and possibly cause it to dissipate entirely.
Weather officials said there is still a chance the storm could regain some strength off northern Cuba and people in Florida should still keep an eye on it and brace for heavy rain, according to John Cagialosi, a hurricane specialist at the center.
