STATUS -- Today was mostly a good day. Although we didn't get to launch either rocket, it was a constructive day. It started out with CAPER being "slightly down for winds", with the forecast showing expected improvements. For that reason, further tests (practice count, etc) on RENU2 were delayed so that CAPER might have a chance to launch, since we can't work on both rockets at the same time for safety reasons. It turned out that the winds never subsided enough for CAPER to get a green light and, in fact, it started to rain so CAPER was brought back to horizontal. The good news is that this meant RENU2 could finish its tests, getting closer to being able to launch. The tests with RENU2 were once again very successful, with no problems showing up anywhere on the payload. We are very grateful to the NASA support that has helped make this happen.

OUTLOOK -- Since it turned out that we never really came close to launching because of persistent strong winds at the Andoya Space Center in Andenes, we were able to complete the testing on RENU2. This means that both rockets are now ready to go, which is very exciting of course. The bad news is that winds at the rocket range and at Longyearbyen are forecast to only gradually die down over the next several days, so it looks like we will still have to deal with that for a while. The good news is that the solar wind is cooperating very nicely, with a strong magnetic field, excellent densities of 10/cc and moderate speeds. If we can get a bit of luck with the ground winds, there is a good chance that we might be able to get at least one of these rockets launched. For the RENU2 rocket, though, we really also want to have clear skies so that we can see what the aurora is doing. Unfortunately, I have seen very few stars because of cloud cover since I got here almost a week ago.

Other -- Travel to the Kjell Henriksen Observatory was especially challenging today, We start our daily trek to KHO at sea level but have to climb to about 1700 feet in elevation to get there, which involves driving through a number of switchbacks. With winds exceeding 30 mph today, snow drifts were very big and visibility was extremely poor. Punching through BIG snowdrifts is routine. One of us (ok... it was me) took a turn too wide and did not manage to punch through a snow drift without slipping a bit off the road. Fred Sigernes brought the beltwagon (an amazing track vehicle) and pulled us out. A picture of our friend, the beltwagon, is below, as it rests in the garage. A video of what the conditions looked like today, from inside the beltwagon, is at https://youtu.be/VEbi7T7FIbQ. It's a good video but really doesn't capture the full effects of the whiteouts that we encountered.

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