T minus 2 days

Another rollercoaster of a day with the weather models 00Z and 06Z models (both NOGAPS and GFS) suggesting that the nasty upper level winds out in the Atlantic would be coming over the UK just as we launch. Up at 9000 metres the indication was that wind speeds would be exceeding 100 knots! Our track was predicted to be almost 90 miles East of our launch site and to make matters worse heavy rain was also forecast.

I've just re-run the flight prediction based on the 12Z model and we have have a much more reasonable track. The rain is an unknown factor with no agreement in the models and different weather sites predicting wildly different weather. From what I can tell, cloud cover and the likely hood of rain falls as we move East - so we may be launching in cloudy skies and retrieving in clear ones.

Tomorrow is a VERY big D-day for us - fairly early on were going to have to give a 'go/no go' because we don't want to have delivery of Helium if it can't be used. So I'll be running the weather models tomorrow morning and hoping we have a consensus from the 00Z and 06Z runs.

This D-day is even bigger than that though. Our launch window is now closing due to factors such as team availability, daylight hours and weather considerations to name but a few. As such a launch between November and January is not particularly likely - so this may well be our last chance to launch in 2009.

As of this moment we are still 'GO'. Check back tomorrow to find out what D-day brings!