After the unsuccessful attempt of last week, days of discussions have been taking place here in Rabat. The hot topic is the next favorable weather forecast that could allow Solar Impulse to fly again to Ouarzazate. 

This will be the most difficult and challenging flight the HB-SIA has ever attempted and the team is still unsure if the mission will succeed. But everybody’s hopes and enthusiasm are at a high. The prototype has exceeded all expectations to this day, proving its technological performance. With the difficult meteorological conditions caused by thermal currents, strong winds and thunderstorms, this particular mission pushes us to deal with the aircraft’s aeronautical limits while preparing the Solar Impulse team in crisis and risk management ahead of the 2014 world tour.

During André Borschberg’s first flight attempt, there were strong unexpected headwinds that ended up slowing down the aircraft and eventually leading the Flight Director to abort the mission. Now that the Solar Impulse team is aware of these obstacles, they are even more impatient to complete the flight.

Two potential itineraries are currently being evaluated:

• Itinerary One: Avoid high altitude winds by flying at low level. This can only be done over the sea, where there is no turbulence. As soon as the aircraft moves inland around Essaouira, André will start his ascent to 8’600 meters to avoid thermal currents and paying attention to high altitude winds.
• Itinerary Two: If there isn’t too much wind at high altitude, the HB-SIA will follow the same internal route it attempted last week, ascending immediately at a higher altitude around Casablanca and flying in the direction of Marrakesh on to Ouarzazate. 

But why insist so much on such a challenging destination? The reason runs deeper than the simple feat. The location is filled with symbolism and Solar Impulse wants to demonstrate its support for the innovative spirit of the Ouarzazate thermo-solar power project, launched by the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN). André will fly over the construction site and land in its vicinity.

The flight will be organized as follows:

• Pilot: André Borschberg
• Final destination: Ouarzazate, Kingdom of Morocco.
• Scheduled departure: from Rabat-Salé airport (Morocco) around 07:00AM (UTC+1), Thursday 21 June.
• Route 1: Flying along the coast and then inland in the direction of Essaouira and finally Ouarzazate.
• Route 2: Flying in the direction of Marrakesh south to the city of Ouarzazate.
• Scheduled landing: Ouarzazate airport (Morocco) after midnight (UTC+1), Friday 22 June.

Follow this new adventure! The flight will be streamed live on our Homepage, as well as on the Smartphone app “Solar Impulse Inventing the Future”, available for free on Appstore and Google Play.  We advise you to connect to a Wi-Fi hub as high amounts of data can be transferred during the LiveStream. And don’t forget to follow our pilots via Twitter: from the cockpit with André and from the ground with Bertrand.