LIVE: Delta II - WISE - Dec 14, 09

[Chris Bergin]

Bob Cabana to the KSC team:

To the KSC team,

I want to pass on my sincere congratulations to the LSP team for a job well done in the planning and execution of the WISE mission over the past six years.  I couldn’t be more proud of them for this successful launch that is testimony to the dedication and excellence of the entire LSP team.  KSC’s Launch Services Program is the model for enabling the current science missions and the future of commercial operations.  The WISE launch marks the seventh launch of an extremely busy year for LSP, delivering critical science missions for our Nation to better understand our universe.  I know how hard the LSP team has worked throughout the planning and execution of this mission and it’s been even harder to overcome the challenges of the last few weeks.  The team did a great job coming up with the technical solutions to solve these complex problems. I can’t say enough good things about LSP’s level of technical excellence and dedication.   
Again, congratulations to the entire LSP team for a job well done!

Keep Charging,

Bob

[Chris Bergin]

Vandenberg AFB, Calif., (Dec. 14, 2009) - An United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket with NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite launches at 6:09 a.m. PST from Space Launch Complex-2 here.   This was ULA’s 16th successful and final launch of 2009 and 37th launch in 36th months of operation.  WISE will scan the entire sky in infrared light, picking up the glow of hundreds of millions of objects and producing millions of images. Photo by Bill Hartenstein, United Launch Alliance

[jimvela]

I hear that Spacecraft telemetry has come down, evidently WISE is alive and well. 

[jacqmans]

RELEASE: 09-286

NASA'S WISE EYE ON THE UNIVERSE BEGINS ALL-SKY SURVEY MISSION

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer, or WISE, lifted off over the Pacific Ocean this morning on
its way to map the entire sky in infrared light.

A Delta II rocket carrying the spacecraft launched at 9:09 a.m. EST
from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The rocket deposited
WISE into a polar orbit 326 miles above Earth.

"WISE thundered overhead, lighting up the pre-dawn skies," said
William Irace, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "All systems are looking good, and we
are on our way to seeing the entire infrared sky better than ever
before."

Engineers acquired a signal from the spacecraft via NASA's Tracking
and Data Relay Satellite System just 10 seconds after the spacecraft
separated from the rocket. Approximately three minutes later, WISE
re-oriented itself with its solar panels facing the sun to generate
its own power. The next major event occurred about 17 minutes later.
Valves on the cryostat, a chamber of super-cold hydrogen ice that
cools the WISE instrument, opened. Because the instrument sees the
infrared, or heat, signatures of objects, it must be kept at chilly
temperatures -- its coldest detectors are less than minus 447 degrees
Fahrenheit.

"WISE needs to be colder than the objects it's observing," said Ned
Wright of UCLA, the mission's principal investigator. "Now we're
ready to see the infrared glow from hundreds of thousands of
asteroids, and hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies."

With the spacecraft stable, cold and communicating with mission
controllers at JPL, a month-long checkout and calibration is
underway.

WISE will see the infrared colors of the whole sky with sensitivity
and resolution far better than the last infrared sky survey,
performed 26 years ago. The space telescope will spend nine months
scanning the sky once, then one-half the sky a second time. The
primary mission will end when WISE's frozen hydrogen runs out, about
10 months after launch.

Just about everything in the universe glows in infrared, which means
the mission will catalog a variety of astronomical targets.
Near-Earth asteroids, stars, planet-forming disks and distant
galaxies all will be easy for the mission to see. Hundreds of
millions of objects will populate the WISE atlas, providing
astronomers and other space missions, such as NASA's planned James
Webb Space Telescope, with a long-lasting infrared roadmap.

JPL manages the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. The mission was competitively
selected under the Explorers Program, managed by NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by
the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was
built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo.
Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared
Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena. NASA's Launch Services Program at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center, Fla., managed the payload integration and the
launch service.

More information about the WISE mission is available online at:



http://www.nasa.gov/wise

[jacqmans]

News Release Issued: December 14, 2009 11:06 AM EST

ATK Propulsion and Composite Technologies Key to Successful Delta II Launch
ATK Supports NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Satellite
ATK Approaching 20 Years of Support for Delta II Missions




MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) played a key role in the successful launch of United Launch Alliance's Delta II rocket today from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., carrying the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite for NASA. The company provided solid rocket boosters and the composite payload fairing.


ATK manufactured the three, 40-inch-diameter Graphite Epoxy Motors (GEM), which are strap-on boosters that ignited with the Delta II first-stage main engine at liftoff. The boosters provided 336,000 pounds of maximum thrust helping carry the WISE satellite to its required orbit.


ATK manufactured the GEM-40 motors at its facility in Magna, Utah, continuing a tradition of flight support for Delta II missions that began in 1990. The composite cases for the GEM-40 boosters were produced at ATK's Clearfield, Utah, facility and are made of graphite epoxy material using an automated filament winding process the company developed and refined through its 50-year heritage in composite manufacturing.


The 10-foot diameter composite payload fairing, encapsulating the payload, was fabricated by ATK's Iuka, Miss., facility. The fairing was produced using advanced composite hand layup manufacturing, machining and inspection techniques. This was the 19th ATK-built fairing flown on a Delta II mission.


In addition, ATK Mission Operations in Pasadena, Calif., provided mission planning, sequence generation, and Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) ground station scheduling support for the mission. ATK's flight controllers provided real-time monitoring and command during prelaunch, launch and post launch and will continue for the duration of the mission. WISE is the 5th mission ATK's flight controllers support.


WISE is an infrared space telescope like two currently orbiting missions, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation. But, unlike these missions, WISE will survey the entire sky. Millions of images from the survey will serve as rough maps for other observatories, such as Spitzer and NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, guiding them to intriguing targets.


The Jet Propulsion Lab manages the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise and http://wise.astro.ucla.edu.

[John44]

 WISE Launch
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5579

 WISE Launch Replays
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5580

[robertross]

Thanks for the coverage everyone.

Congrats ULA & NASA. Job well done!

[Zipi]

Official Youtube video:

[woods170]

Some more background: in astronomy we tend to alternate 'survey' missions which discover new sources (stars, galaxies, etc) and 'pointed' missions which follow up those discoveries with detailed study. The last all sky infrared survey was IRAS in 1983;

With regards to the underlined text above: That's a load of BS. The last infrared all sky survey was not IRAS in 1983, but the Japanese Akari mission (the former ASTRO-F) from February 2006 to August 2007.
The first infrared all-sky survey was IRAS in 1983. More than 20 years later, the Japanese did a much better survey, making good use of the vastly improved IR sensor technology.
WISE, in it's current form is basically re-doing Akari, less than 3 years later, but concentrating more on the shorter wavelengths within the Infrared part of the spectrum and higher sensitivity.

I find the fact that NASA is conveniantly overlooking Akari slightly annoying.

[gospacex]

Some more background: in astronomy we tend to alternate 'survey' missions which discover new sources (stars, galaxies, etc) and 'pointed' missions which follow up those discoveries with detailed study. The last all sky infrared survey was IRAS in 1983;

With regards to the underlined text above: That's a load of BS. The last infrared all sky survey was not IRAS in 1983, but the Japanese Akari mission (the former ASTRO-F) from February 2006 to August 2007.
The first infrared all-sky survey was IRAS in 1983. More than 20 years later, the Japanese did a much better survey, making good use of the vastly improved IR sensor technology.

Did they find something of note? Say, a largish transneptunian object?

[jcm]

Some more background: in astronomy we tend to alternate 'survey' missions which discover new sources (stars, galaxies, etc) and 'pointed' missions which follow up those discoveries with detailed study. The last all sky infrared survey was IRAS in 1983;

With regards to the underlined text above: That's a load of BS. The last infrared all sky survey was not IRAS in 1983, but the Japanese Akari mission (the former ASTRO-F) from February 2006 to August 2007.
The first infrared all-sky survey was IRAS in 1983. More than 20 years later, the Japanese did a much better survey, making good use of the vastly improved IR sensor technology.
WISE, in it's current form is basically re-doing Akari, less than 3 years later, but concentrating more on the shorter wavelengths within the Infrared part of the spectrum and higher sensitivity.

I find the fact that NASA is conveniantly overlooking Akari slightly annoying.

Ouch. I did forget Akari. The Akari source catalog has of course not yet been publicly released (as far as I can telll) so at this moment IRAS is still the only all sky survey available to the community.  That's not meant to be a complaint - it took us years to do the Chandra catalog which just came out a few months ago. I think the combined Akari and WISE datasets will be very exciting, and I apologize to my Japanese and European colleagues for overlooking them. (At least I did nod to ISO and Herschel). Mea maxima culpa.

 - Jonathan

[ChrisC]

On that tangent, NASA has certainly demonstrated what a poor job JAXA does of releasing their data.  Recent unmanned missions (MER, Cassini, Phoenix) have been aaaaall about getting the data out immediately (with the uncalibrated caveat of course).  JAXA ... mission after mission, little comes out publicly.  Kaguya, Nozomi ...

So, yeah, I'd go ahead and complain.

(note: all second hand opinions, I'm just a fan)

(ducks)

[woods170]

Some more background: in astronomy we tend to alternate 'survey' missions which discover new sources (stars, galaxies, etc) and 'pointed' missions which follow up those discoveries with detailed study. The last all sky infrared survey was IRAS in 1983;

With regards to the underlined text above: That's a load of BS. The last infrared all sky survey was not IRAS in 1983, but the Japanese Akari mission (the former ASTRO-F) from February 2006 to August 2007.
The first infrared all-sky survey was IRAS in 1983. More than 20 years later, the Japanese did a much better survey, making good use of the vastly improved IR sensor technology.
WISE, in it's current form is basically re-doing Akari, less than 3 years later, but concentrating more on the shorter wavelengths within the Infrared part of the spectrum and higher sensitivity.

I find the fact that NASA is conveniantly overlooking Akari slightly annoying.

Ouch. I did forget Akari. The Akari source catalog has of course not yet been publicly released (as far as I can telll) so at this moment IRAS is still the only all sky survey available to the community.  That's not meant to be a complaint - it took us years to do the Chandra catalog which just came out a few months ago. I think the combined Akari and WISE datasets will be very exciting, and I apologize to my Japanese and European colleagues for overlooking them. (At least I did nod to ISO and Herschel). Mea maxima culpa.

 - Jonathan

The initial version of the Akari Survey catalogue was released to the participating project teams in November 2008, approx. one year after finishing observations. That's quite good a release time for the release of refined data. The Japanese traditionally do not like to release 'raw' data, as that might lead to wild stories in the media (as once happened to the IRAS project teams... Someone claimed IRAS 'saw' the missing 10th planet, and that bogus observation was based on unprocessed data. Go figure...)
Both catalogues (Survey and point source) based on Akari data were planned to be made publicly available in the fall of 2009. They have been delayed by a few months for further refining. New release date is in early 2010.

The participating project teams in Akari have already submitted a number of scientific articles based on Akari data.

[jacqmans]

News release: 2009-206                                                                      Dec. 29, 2009

NASA's WISE Space Telescope Jettisons Its Cover

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-206&cid=release_2009-206

NASA's recently launched Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer opened its eyes to the starry sky today, after ejecting its protective cover.

Engineers and scientists say the maneuver went off without a hitch, and everything is working properly. The mission's "first-light" images of the sky will be released to the public in about a month, after the telescope has been fully calibrated.

"The cover floated away as we planned," said William Irace, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Our detectors are soaking up starlight for the first time."

WISE will perform the most detailed infrared survey of the entire sky to date. Its millions of images will expose the dark side of the cosmos -- objects, such as asteroids, stars and galaxies, that are too cool or dusty to be seen with visible light. The telescope will survey the sky one-and-a-half times in nine months, ending its primary mission when the coolant it needs to see infrared light evaporates away.

WISE launched on Dec. 14 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Once it was thoroughly checked out in space, it was ready to "flip its lid."

The cover served as the top to a Thermos-like bottle that chilled the instrument -- a 40-centimeter (16-inch) telescope and four infrared detector arrays with one million pixels each. The instrument must be maintained at frosty temperatures, as cold as below 8 Kelvin (minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit), to prevent it from picking up its own heat, or infrared, glow. The cover kept everything cool on the ground by sealing a vacuum space into the instrument chamber. In the same way that Thermos bottles use thin vacuum layers to keep your coffee warm or iced tea cold, the vacuum space inside WISE stopped heat from getting in. Now, space itself will provide the instrument with an even better vacuum than before.

The cover also protected the instrument from stray sunlight and extra heat during launch.

At about 2:30 p.m. PST (5:30 p.m. PST), Dec. 29, engineers sent a command to fire pyrotechnic devices that released nuts holding the cover in place. Three springs were then free to push the cover away and into an orbit closer to Earth than that of the spacecraft.

Scientists and engineers are now busy adjusting the rate of the spacecraft to match the rate of a scanning mirror. To take still images on the sky as it orbits around Earth, WISE will use a scan mirror to counteract its motion. Light from the moving telescope's primary miror will be focused onto the scan mirror, which will move in the opposite direction at the same rate. This allows the mission to take "freeze-frame" snapshots of the sky every 11 seconds. That's about 7,500 images a day.

"It's wonderful to end the year with open WISE eyes," said Peter Eisenhardt, the mission's project scientist at JPL. "Now we can synch WISE up to our scan mirror and get on with the business of exploring the infrared universe."

WISE is scheduled to begin its survey of the infrared heavens in mid-January of 2010.

JPL manages the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise and http://wise.astro.ucla.edu .



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