STATUS -- Today was a day with lots of excitement initially, but one that ended with disappointment. Solar wind conditions continued to be very favorable and winds were calm enough at the rocket range for both rockets to be "green" for launch. There were some fishing boats off the coast (the rocket range is right on the water in Andenes, Norway) that requested clearance to pass through the area, which was fine. Skies over Longyearbyen were partly cloudy, though Ny Alesund was very clear and we could easily see what the aurora was doing with the University of Oslo cameras.

Not long after the fishing boats got through the area, SuperDARN radar showed clear signatures of the cusp and then the CAPER team picked up the count for launch. While we monitor science conditions, the clock is typically held at T-15 minutes. Once the count is picked up, there is usually another possible hold at T-2 minutes to maybe wait for better science conditions. In this case the ideal science conditions were already in place and the countdown continued through for launch. Unfortunately, there was a problem in flight and no data was acquired with that mission. This is one of those times when we need to remember that the rocket program is NASA's "high risk" program and these things happen periodically.

OUTLOOK -- Of course, all efforts were immediately focused on trying to understand what went wrong with CAPER. There are some excellent engineers in this program and the puzzle will be solved, to be sure. Whether or not this will impact the possible launch of RENU2 is something we don't know yet. There are similarites and differences between these rockets and we need to be sure that RENU2 will not run into the same issue(s).

The good news is that the sun continues to cooperate. In the linked image, the blue circle highlights two "active regions" that are well-positioned to deliver good auroral activity for the next several days, maybe more. You may or may not know that the sun rotates about once every 27 days. As we view it, the rotation means that the features we see (sunspots, etc) move from left to right. When the active regions reach the very right-hand side of the image is when we get the solar wind effects from that active region. All we need is a bit more cooperation with the local weather to keep the winds down and the skies clear!

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