Saturday afternoon brought thunderstorms over Kennedy Space Center including several lightning strikes at the launch pad from where the Artemis I mission is scheduled to lift off on Monday.
NASA teams evaluating the effects of three strikes at Launch Pad 39-B’s lightning towers overnight deemed everything was fine to proceed with the countdown expected around midnight Monday ahead of the beginning of the two-hour launch window that opens at 8:33 a.m.
“We did yesterday, you may have seen we had some — we call them kind of spectacular, amazing events as we do every day here in Florida,” said Jeff Spaulding, Artemis I senior NASA test director during a Sunday news conference. “We did have some strikes that we recorded on our lightning tower pad working as it normally should. And we did have those. We’ve been evaluating those through yesterday and last night, and everything today looks very good from a vehicle perspective.”
