Launch Ranges & Spaceports

our approach

WDSS partners with Radiometrics to provide meteorological instrumentation, algorithms, and decision support to meteorological and non-meteorological operational decision makers at Cape Canaveral. This system termed the Launch Weather Decision Support System (LWDSS) is being expanded and customized to meet the needs of other launch and spaceport facilities. LWDSS is designed to provide meteorolgocial support to ranges and spaceports from several days out from T0 through launch and recovery.

The LWDSS instrumentation and display systems are cutomizable to address specfic facilities’ launch and recovery meteorological criteria for both vertical and horizontal spacecraft missions. LWDSS can be delivered to facilities with meteorological staff to enhance their forecast efforts to avoid potential scrubs or other weather related problems. LWDSS can be delivered with 24/7 meteorological support provided for facilities without meteorological staff.

LWDSS integrates real-time observational data with numerical modeling outputs to provide detections and forecasts of weather hazards associated with launch safety that can lead to mission scrubs. LWDSS components include monitoring and forecasts of storms, surface, mid-level, and winds aloft, lightning activity and triggered lightning potential including monitoring and forecasting of MaxQ values.