Author Topic: LIVE: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014 (1446UTC)  (Read 63388 times)

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On Aug. 1, 2013, an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, operated by the 60th Air Mobility Wing from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., transported the 19th Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), block 5D3, weather satellite Flight 19 from Sunnyvale to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. DMSP F19 will undergo final launch preparations, encapsulation and transport to Space Launch Complex 3 East at Vandenberg AFB over the next 250 days and is on track for a March 2014 launch.
« Last Edit: 04/19/2014 10:28 am by input~2 »
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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014
« Reply #1 on: 08/07/2013 06:29 pm »
Defense Weather Satellite 19 Transported to Vandenberg for Launch Preparations

Release Number: 010813

8/6/2013 - LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, El Segundo, Calif. -- The U.S. Air Force, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman team successfully delivered the 19th Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), block 5D3, weather satellite to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., where it will be prepared for launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle. On Aug. 1, 2013, an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, operated by the 60th Air Mobility Wing from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., transported DMSP Flight19 from Sunnyvale to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. DMSP F19 will undergo final launch preparations, encapsulation and transport to Space Launch Complex 3 East at Vandenberg AFB over the next 250 days and is on track for a March 2014 launch.

http://www.afspc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123358637&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
« Last Edit: 08/07/2013 06:30 pm by jacqmans »
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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014
« Reply #2 on: 02/08/2014 04:36 pm »
Apparently the stacking of the Atlas V for this launch is already underway for launch on April 3: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/nrol67/stacking.html

With quite a bit of excess capacity on this flight, is ULA planning yet another Centaur new feature demonstration like they did on DMSP-F18 in October 2009?
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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014
« Reply #3 on: 03/07/2014 03:13 pm »
Per the Mission Set Database from GSFC, launch window is 7:46-7:56am PDT on April 3rd.
« Last Edit: 03/07/2014 03:50 pm by lazaruslong »

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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014
« Reply #4 on: 03/07/2014 04:56 pm »
Apparently the stacking of the Atlas V for this launch is already underway for launch on April 3: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/nrol67/stacking.html

With quite a bit of excess capacity on this flight, is ULA planning yet another Centaur new feature demonstration like they did on DMSP-F18 in October 2009?

I'll see if I can ask.

~Jon

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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014
« Reply #5 on: 03/18/2014 09:36 pm »
As with the DMSP-F18 launch this Atlas V will complete its mission fairly quickly.  ;)
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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014
« Reply #6 on: 03/28/2014 03:14 pm »
Maybe Blackstar or any meteorologist here can answer this question....  :-\

Except for historical organizational reasons, are there any reason that NOAA and USAF both keep a separate system of polar weather satellites? I know that DMSP is more inclined for military planning, but are there any operational or instrumentation differences that would argue for TWO separate systems? Or is that the situation is similar to the EELV down-selection, where both the NOAA and DMSP systems were kept?

Also, did operational arrangement disagreement between NOAA and USAF caused the cost rise and ultimate downfall of NPOESS?
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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014
« Reply #7 on: 03/28/2014 03:30 pm »

Except for historical organizational reasons, are there any reason that NOAA and USAF both keep a separate system of polar weather satellites? I know that DMSP is more inclined for military planning, but are there any operational or instrumentation differences that would argue for TWO separate systems?

NOAA is concerned with the US weather and its passes are timed with daylight as such, DMSP is more concerned with the rest of the world.

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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014
« Reply #8 on: 03/28/2014 03:59 pm »
Apparently the stacking of the Atlas V for this launch is already underway for launch on April 3: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/nrol67/stacking.html

With quite a bit of excess capacity on this flight, is ULA planning yet another Centaur new feature demonstration like they did on DMSP-F18 in October 2009?

Doesn't look like it. Should be a fairly standard sun-synch mission.

Offline input~2

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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014 (ETD 1446UTC)
« Reply #9 on: 03/31/2014 07:18 pm »
!CARF 03/083 [...]  ZAK AIRSPACE DCC 2 ROPS AIROP DO-1401 STATIONARY ALTITUDE RESERVATION WITHIN AREA DEFINED AS 0748N12554W 0800N12655W 1134N12613W 1122N12511W SFC-UNL 1404031431-1404031539

Offline Comga

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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014 (ETD 1446UTC)
« Reply #10 on: 03/31/2014 09:39 pm »

Except for historical organizational reasons, are there any reason that NOAA and USAF both keep a separate system of polar weather satellites? I know that DMSP is more inclined for military planning, but are there any operational or instrumentation differences that would argue for TWO separate systems?

NOAA is concerned with the US weather and its passes are timed with daylight as such, DMSP is more concerned with the rest of the world.

As DMSP is in a sun synchronous orbit, it takes it readings at the same solar time all over the world.  Lighting conditions are the same for the US as anywhere else.  Why would the orbit be adjusted differently for the DoD requirements?

My impression is that there were other reasons why the Integrated Program Office would not produce a weather system to the satisfaction of all three "cooperating" organizations, NASA, NOAA, and DoD.  I saw some of this first hand working on NPOESS in the 1990's. 
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ULA:

Everything is progressing for the Air Force’s DMSP-19 launch. The mission is set to liftoff on a ULA Atlas V rocket on Thursday, April 3 from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 7:46 a.m. PDT. Today’s L-3 forecast shows a 90 percent chance of favorable weather conditions for launch.
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Mission booklet
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Re: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014 (ETD 1446UTC)
« Reply #14 on: 04/01/2014 10:49 pm »
Speculation on the disposal of the Centaur for this mission.

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Apr-2014/0004.html

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Another excellent launch preview by William Graham:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/04/atlas-v-usafs-dmsp-5d3-f-19-satellite/

Includes a few paras I included at the end about the two Cape launches. I've linked on both relevant threads, so any discussion relating to those should be on those threads.
« Last Edit: 04/03/2014 03:50 am by Chris Bergin »
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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014 (ETD 1446UTC)
« Reply #17 on: 04/03/2014 06:02 am »
Jacques :-)

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Re: LIVE: Atlas V 401 DMSP-5D3 F19 - April 3 2014 (ETD 1446UTC)
« Reply #18 on: 04/03/2014 06:30 am »

Another excellent launch preview by William Graham:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/04/atlas-v-usafs-dmsp-5d3-f-19-satellite/

Includes a few paras I included at the end about the two Cape launches. I've linked on both relevant threads, so any discussion relating to those should be on those threads.

Excellent & informative article.

Online Galactic Penguin SST


Except for historical organizational reasons, are there any reason that NOAA and USAF both keep a separate system of polar weather satellites? I know that DMSP is more inclined for military planning, but are there any operational or instrumentation differences that would argue for TWO separate systems?

NOAA is concerned with the US weather and its passes are timed with daylight as such, DMSP is more concerned with the rest of the world.

As DMSP is in a sun synchronous orbit, it takes it readings at the same solar time all over the world.  Lighting conditions are the same for the US as anywhere else.  Why would the orbit be adjusted differently for the DoD requirements?

My impression is that there were other reasons why the Integrated Program Office would not produce a weather system to the satisfaction of all three "cooperating" organizations, NASA, NOAA, and DoD.  I saw some of this first hand working on NPOESS in the 1990's.

I have checked the lighting conditions for the sun-synchronous orbits of NOAA, DMSP and other polar weather satellites - it appears that since NOAA has all the satellites in an "afternoon orbit" (the "morning orbit" slot is filled by Europe's MetOp series), all recent DMSP launches are to the "morning orbit" (indeed this one is going to orbit around the terminator). Which makes the "redundancy" question even puzzling, since it seems that the current DMSP have different instruments than those on NOAA satellites, despite having broadly similar capability.

So - does military meteorologists have different emphasis on the need of atmospheric data than civilian ones?  :-\
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