edkyle99 - 10/4/2008 11:30 PM
Regarding MSDB, I'm starting to think that it isn't "down" so much as "removed".
Chris Bergin - 14/4/2008 3:42 PM
Let me fire off an e-mail and try and get the lowdown on this one...
jancarlobascu - 15/4/2008 3:16 AMVery unlikely.
NASA TV COVERAGE?
PA space fan - 16/4/2008 5:42 PM
Per Spaceflight Now, the launch took place at 12:55 p.m. EDT and was successful.
GW_Simulations - 16/4/2008 6:45 PM C/NOFS is finally in orbit, 5 years behind schedule, but better late than never.
Could you summarize the history behind C/NOFS? I'm curious now you mention the 5-year delay.
eeergo - 16/4/2008 5:57 PMQuoteGW_Simulations - 16/4/2008 6:45 PM C/NOFS is finally in orbit, 5 years behind schedule, but better late than never.Could you summarize the history behind C/NOFS? I'm curious now you mention the 5-year delay.
GW_Simulations - 16/4/2008 7:37 PMQuoteeeergo - 16/4/2008 5:57 PMI don't know the details, I just know that the contract was signed for a 2003 launch.QuoteGW_Simulations - 16/4/2008 6:45 PM C/NOFS is finally in orbit, 5 years behind schedule, but better late than never.Could you summarize the history behind C/NOFS? I'm curious now you mention the 5-year delay.
Now we know!
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/cnofs/
It was because of solar panel redesign issues and the technology required to make it very radiofrequency silent, given its instruments are very sensitive to those.
kevin-rf - 18/4/2008 7:30 AM
An interesting trivia bit on the orbital site about the launch, with out going to wikki/google/astonautix, who can name the six ranges Pegasus has launched from .... (No Google)
jancarlobascu - 17/4/2008 5:27 PM
Launch Photos?
Jirka Dlouhy - 18/4/2008 2:47 PM
I think the launch is so secret because of the instruments are very unique and informations about navigation signals are very important.
In passive form: to be poised to different kinds of anomalies. It means to be ready to elimination of their effects.
In active form: to be able to use this anomalies by actions against possible enemy. In the better case to be able to create this anomalies in war situation.
Jim - 18/4/2008 9:18 PM
Easy answer to no launch photos. Didn't want to spend the money.
edkyle99 - 19/4/2008 11:35 AM
Kwajalein surely had optical tracking.
- Ed Kyle
Jim - 18/4/2008 9:18 PM Easy answer to no launch photos. Didn't want to spend the money.
You are absolutely right; this was a commercial sale to (then Spectrum Astro) GD who had to pay a significant sum for the delay - the longest in Pegasus history, I'm afraid (no criticism of GD intended - we build satellites, too, and know that sometimes stuff happens). Not very incentivized to spend even a dime on pictures!
edkyle99 - 19/4/2008 11:35 AM No chase plane, maybe (has Pegasus ever launched without a chase?)
Many, many times... (e.g. when launching the ORBCOMM satellites... again, for $$$ reasons...)
but someone photographed this thing on the tarmac, taking off, etc. Kwajalein surely had optical tracking. - Ed Kyle
Yes, we have photos; a landing one with smoke coming out of the tires and the rocket underneath is especially spectacular, but we can't distribute them without the customer's permission. maybe in a few weeks in the Orbital website?
By the way, the rocket had painted, in the middle of stage 1, right under the wing fairing, the following:
"In loving memory of G. David Low"
I was wrong about the wording of the David Low inscription on Pegasus. Here's a bunch of photos from the C/NOFS launch. There are two L-1011 landings: first at Kona (with the overcast skies), on the Big Island, the second (with a puff of smoke) at Kwaj. Other than barging in a tube trailer worth of Nitrogen from Hawaii about a month before, and some early comm checks, the bulk of the operation started about two weeks before the launch. Aircraft and most of the team arrived at L-8 days. All the spacecraft support equipment was carried on three containers in the belly of the L-1011. The ground air conditioning unit came via a USAF cargo plane. Two days after the launch, everything but the a/c (which will stay there until the IBEX launch September 13) was gone.
Compare these pictures with the pictures of Elon's operations at Omlek.
antonioe - 14/5/2008 3:34 PMI was wrong about the wording of the David Low inscription on Pegasus. Here's a bunch of photos from the C/NOFS launch. There are two L-1011 landings: first at Kona (with the overcast skies), on the Big Island, the second (with a puff of smoke) at Kwaj. Other than barging in a tube trailer worth of Nitrogen from Hawaii about a month before, and some early comm checks, the bulk of the operation started about two weeks before the launch. Aircraft and most of the team arrived at L-8 days. All the spacecraft support equipment was carried on three containers in the belly of the L-1011. The ground air conditioning unit came via a USAF cargo plane. Two days after the launch, everything but the a/c (which will stay there until the IBEX launch September 13) was gone.
Compare these pictures with the pictures of Elon's operations at Omlek.
Hmmmm.... maybe the pictures are too big... is there a size limit?
Well, I reduced the David Low inscription picture to 120KB and it still gave me the "page does not exists" error after I push the "Submit" button after browsing to the file...
Any ideas, anyone?
antonioe - 15/5/2008 7:32 PMHmmmm.... maybe the pictures are too big... is there a size limit?
Well, I reduced the David Low inscription picture to 120KB and it still gave me the "page does not exists" error after I push the "Submit" button after browsing to the file...
Any ideas, anyone?
I think the default maximum size is 100 KB, but I'm sure Chris can raise that limit locally as an exception... however, I think downsizing it just a bit more may do the trick for now.
On the other hand, I've just realised when I exeed the 100 KB limit I don't get that error message, just a notice on the attachment page saying the image must be smaller... :O
OK - now I'm trying it from home and using Mozilla Firefox, not Internet Explorer:
Yesss!! It worked!!!. OK, here come more: the L-1011 landing at Kona on the big island after departing Vandenberg. The L-1011 flew from Mojave, where it is normally parked, to Vandenberg; there the satellite had been attached to the Pegasus, and then the Pegasus was attached to the L-1011.
After refueling at Kona and crew rest, the L-1011 flew to Kwaj about 9 days before the launch. The next picture shows the landing at Kwaj.
The Air Force C/NOFS site has a picture of the L-1011 departing Vandenberg.
Here's three more: first, the L-1011 at its parking spot. To the left of the aircraft the Nitrogen tube trailer, one of two large pieces of launch support equipment; it was barged from Hawaii about a month before the flight. The second one, an air conditioning unit, was taken by an Air Force plane a couple of weeks before the flight (it is barely visible under the wing of the L-1011).
All the satellite ground support equipment was carried on three LD3 containers carried on the belly of the L-1011. The L-1011 also acted as a nice, air conditioned lab to make small repairs.
The entire Orbital launch team at kwaj peaked at about 30 people or so; most of them arrived shortly before the L-1011, about two weeks before the flight. Everybody left about two days after the flight - could have departed the day after, but Continental had some problems and the departure commercial flights were delayed.
Last two pictures. First, the launch control room (really!). The audio boxes were supplied by the USAF, the laptops were Orbital's. It took a couple of days to set up the room and check it out (well, this was our second launch from Kwaj; the first time it took a bit longer to setup and debug).
Finally, the L-1011 a few hours before takeoff. Trajectology required the drop to occur around 4 am local, so it was a night takeoff. The nitrogen trailer is clearly visible, as was an air-conditioned half-length shelter that we conveniently "found" at the island for the satelliters to use as a shelter during satellite pre-launch checkout. The air conditioning unit we airlifted from Vandenberg is immediately to the right of the rocket.
And that's all a Pegasus launch needs! Can you spell "Operationally Responsive Launch"?
Thanks for the kind words. The nice thing about it, it's still as much fun today as it was 20 years ago! Perhaps a lot has to do with DWT's personality: while having made a sucessful transition from garage-shop entrepreneur to billion-dollar CEO (and very few people have been sucessful doing that), he still retains the thriftness (he flies coach) and small-trusted-team flavor of a 40-person company (Orbital had 40 employes, counting DWT and the receptionist, when I joined the organization).
jimvela - 19/5/2008 11:12 PM That L1011 sure looks more comfy to work in than the rest of those sparse surroundings!! :cool:
Indeed. The front part of the cabin has the Launch Panel Operator (LOP) console, auxilliary equipment rack, and eight (first-class!) seats - the original leather ones in the picture we got from Air Canada as part of the deal on the L-1011, but have been since replaced, as the previous picture shows. In the galley there is an air filtration and conditioning unit, as well as Nitrogen bottles for the satellites.
Behind a (blue) fireproof curtain, the rest of the cabin was stripped clean of all soundproofing, insulation, etc., making N140SC the lightest L-1011 ever. By the way, that's yours truly in the picture of the aft cabin (a few years ago, with much darker hair than today; I don't know what I was doing that day - the tie is unusual, definitely not Orbital dress code). The picture looks forward, towards the blue fire curtain. The yellow railing protects the staircase leading down to the galley area.
The LPO console with two seats: one LPO takes care of the rocket, the other takes care of the satellite; you can say that these two people - plus the pilots - are actually doing the launch; the people on the ground only monitor telemetry during the L-1011 flight and issue verbal commands to the LPOs, there is no "command uplink".)
Forward of the LPO console you can see a small closet where we store clothing, snacks, etc.(the lav is on the starboard side) and the entrance to the cockpit. I'm afraid we would not pass the TSA requirements for armoder cockpit doors, I'm afraid!
antonioe - 20/5/2008 7:19 AM (Orbital had 40 employes, counting DWT and the receptionist, when I joined the organization).
Sorry, I was wrong (it's the age, you know...) Orbital had TWENTY employees when I joined... I was employee number 40, but 20 people had left by the time I got there...
antonioe - 21/5/2008 9:28 PMQuoteantonioe - 20/5/2008 7:19 AM (Orbital ...)
Antonio - great pictures and info, thanks! Do you have the drop time and L-1011 takeoff time handy?
I've seen 3 different drop times quoted...
And was the drop point the same as last time - 7.65N 167.70 E I believe...
thanks if you can supply any of this
Jonathan McDowell
Jonathan:
I'll get you the precise drop time.
By the way, an interesting on-board video of the Alexis launch (Pegasus Flight 4, back in 1993) is now posted in the L2 Ultimate Video Section along with a "play-by-play" commentary by yours truly who was the LPO on that flight.
jcm - 21/5/2008 10:34 PM Do you have the drop time and L-1011 takeoff time handy? I've seen 3 different drop times quoted... And was the drop point the same as last time - 7.65N 167.70 E
L-1011 takeoff time: 16:04:00 UTC (actually, brakes-off time)
Drop time: 17:02:48 UTC (ignition is drop + 5 seconds)
Lat/Lon: in work, will report.
antonioe - 22/5/2008 8:04 AMJonathan:
I'll get you the precise drop time.
By the way, an interesting on-board video of the Alexis launch (Pegasus Flight 4, back in 1993) is now posted in the L2 Ultimate Video Section along with a "play-by-play" commentary by yours truly who was the LPO on that flight.
No, I never had the privilege of meeting him. As for the drop Lat/Lon, as a token of our appreciation for Dr. McDowell's tireless pursuit and cataloguing of space activities (I have an Excel conversion of your table right on my desktop!), here's an actual snapshot of the telemetry screen showing the lat/lon/alt at drop (latitude is geodetic; I trust the GPS numbers far better than the INS numbers):
antonioe - 22/5/2008 9:29 PMNo, I never had the privilege of meeting him. As for the drop Lat/Lon, as a token of our appreciation for Dr. McDowell's tireless pursuit and cataloguing of space activities (I have an Excel conversion of your table right on my desktop!), here's an actual snapshot of the telemetry screen showing the lat/lon/alt at drop (latitude is geodetic; I trust the GPS numbers far better than the INS numbers):
antonioe - 22/5/2008 9:29 PMNo, I never had the privilege of meeting him. As for the drop Lat/Lon, as a token of our appreciation for Dr. McDowell's tireless pursuit and cataloguing of space activities (I have an Excel conversion of your table right on my desktop!), here's an actual snapshot of the telemetry screen showing the lat/lon/alt at drop (latitude is geodetic; I trust the GPS numbers far better than the INS numbers):
antonioe - 22/5/2008 12:06 AM
Great list, Jonathan! But I think there may have been a few (Two? Three? One?) air launches of relatively large TARGET vehicles from a C-17 for the USAF using the classical parachute extraction method.
jcm - 23/5/2008 10:01 AM Look at the bottom of page 5: SRALT and LRALT Targets, I lumped them with the ALBM and ASAT firings.
By golly! You're right! My most humble apologies...
Skyrocket - 23/5/2008 10:25 AM
On the ALBM list, there should be also the launches of two Minuteman missles (only first stage), launched from C-5A Galaxy
M-55E1 (Airlaunch) - 08.Sep.1974 WTR, C-5A
M-55E1 (Airlaunch) - 24.Oct.1974 WTR, C-5A