News

Direct Strikes to LC-39B During Artemis I Countdown

SLS' Jupiter OLS systems captured multi-angle videos of two negative polarity lightning events that directly attached to the LC-39B lightning protection system during the Artemis I launch countdown on August 27, 2022. Click "Read More" to watch.

Sunday Afternoon Cloud-To-Ground Strike

A Jupiter OLS high-speed video lightning monitoring system at the Kennedy Space Center captured this lightning discharge on Sunday afternoon.

Bolt From The Blue Flashes

SLS' Jupiter OLS high-speed camera network at the Kennedy Space Center has recently captured a large number of "bolt from the blue" type lightning flashes.

Perfectly Framed

Perfectly framed with the Relativity Space Terran 1 launch vehicle on the pad at SLC-16, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Direct Lightning Strike to LC-39B

Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center was directly impacted by an amazing lightning event on July 2, 2022. The first stroke (Image #1) attached to ground in two locations and to a tower of the LC-39B lightning protection systems nearly simultaneously. The direct strike was not reported by the Space Force lightning location system, an issue that typically occurs for multiple-ground contact…

Jupiter OLS at SLC-16

SLS installed a Jupiter OLS high-speed video lightning monitoring system to provide 24/7 coverage of Space Launch Complex 16 (SLC-16) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Relativity Space is preparing the first Terran 1 launch vehicle for launch later this summer at SLC-16. The SLC-16 lightning protection system, Terran 1 launch vehicle, and integration…

NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) was directly struck by lightning last Friday, June 24th.

June Lightning Activity at KSC and CCSFS

June continues to provide plenty of lightning activity at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Summer Lightning Season

The afternoon and evening of June 6, 2022 brought the first major thunderstorms of the summer lightning season to Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Florida's Space Coast. SLS' Jupiter OLS systems captured hundreds of cloud-to-ground lightning events, including a "bolt from the blue" flash near the VAB (Image #1), a direct strike to the lightning protection system of Launch Complex 39A (Image #2), and many nearby strikes to Launch Complex 39B (Images #3 and #4). Note that the Artemis 1 launch vehicle and Mobile Launch Tower (see prior post) rolled to LC-39B on June 6th and are shown in the images. Fortunately, there were no direct strikes to LC-39B on this day.

Jupiter TMS Captures Data For NASA LSP Umbilical Cable Simulation Testing

Spacecraft awaiting launch connect to ground support equipment through large "umbilical" cables that provide power, control, and communication to various onboard systems. Often, the connected electronics are very sensitive to induced voltages and currents that are associated with nearby lightning strikes. NASA engineers have attempted to model the coupling of lightning signals onto the inner conductors…