NASASpaceFlight.com Forum
Commercial and US Government Launch Vehicles => NGIS (Formerly Orbital ATK) - Antares/Cygnus Section => Topic started by: George CA on 03/28/2006 05:28 am
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From SLC-8, Vandenberg Air Force Base. Thought I'd start a launch thread for this.
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Here are a couple of links with info on the spacecraft and mission:
http://www.cosmic.ucar.edu/index.html
http://www.orbital.com/SatellitesSpace/LEO/FORMOSAT-3/index.html
Very Orbital-centric launch: Orbital's MicroStar spacecraft and Minotaur launch vehicle.
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Orbital seem to be getting some business recently. They did ST-5 also?
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Hotol - 3/4/2006 5:40 AMOrbital seem to be getting some business recently. They did ST-5 also?
Only launched it
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Hi, will NASA TV broadcast this launch live? Or will it be broadcast somewhere else?
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NASA TV only airs launch coverage programs relative to the agency(IE only if is carrying a NASA payload).
And from prior Minotaur launches, the only coverage of the launch will maybe through Spaceflightnow.com.
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Cretan126 - 31/3/2006 3:58 PM
Here are a couple of links with info on the spacecraft and mission:
http://www.cosmic.ucar.edu/index.html
http://www.orbital.com/SatellitesSpace/LEO/FORMOSAT-3/index.html
Very Orbital-centric launch: Orbital's MicroStar spacecraft and Minotaur launch vehicle.
This mission will also be launching a small communications experiment
named "LCT2" (Low-Cost Transceiver) for NASA's Aeronautics Research
Mission Directorate. LCT2 will remain attached to the Minotaur upper
stage. See, for example,
http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/lct2.htm
According to:
http://advrangetech.ksc.nasa.gov/Media/10_AFSS_&_LCTT.pdf
LCT2 is a DARPA-FALCON/NASA Wallops project that
involves LJT and Associates and Johns Hopkins
University
- Ed Kyle
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DaveS - 8/4/2006 3:21 PM
NASA TV only airs launch coverage programs relative to the agency(IE only if is carrying a NASA payload).
Too bad... :(
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Are NSPO and Orbital Science going to broadcast the launch on the Internet?
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Spirit - 13/4/2006 4:38 PM
Are NSPO and Orbital Science going to broadcast the launch on the Internet?
Don't think so. You'll have to follow it indirectly with Spaceflightnow's Mission Status Center: http://spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/cosmic/status.html
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RELEASE: 27-06
NASA TO WEBCAST MINOTAUR LAUNCH OF COSMIC SPACECRAFT
The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and
Climate, or COSMIC, is set to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base,
Calif., at 5:10 p.m. PDT (8:10 p.m. EDT) Friday, April 14, aboard a
U.S. Air Force Minotaur rocket. The launch window is three hours in
duration. The launch countdown will be available on the Internet
beginning at 3 p.m. PDT (6 p.m. EDT) and may be accessed at:
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/video/vafb.ram
A globe-spanning constellation of six weather and climate research
satellites based upon a novel application of a NASA-developed
technology, the network is expected to improve weather forecasts,
monitor climate change and enhance space weather research.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., designed COSMIC's
primary instrument, a science global positioning system (GPS) space
receiver. JPL will also provide instrument flight software and
technical support. The five-year mission is funded by Taiwan's
National Space Organization and various U.S. agencies, including the
National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va., which leads science
activities. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research,
Boulder, Colo., manages the mission and designed the satellite array
system.
The low-orbiting satellites will be the first to provide atmospheric
data daily in real time over thousands of points on Earth by
measuring the bending of radio signals from the U.S. GPS as the
signals pass through Earth's atmosphere, a technology known as radio
occultation. The data will be used for research and operational
weather forecasting.
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Critical point in countdown coming up in about an hour. Thats when officials get the latest weather forecast and it doesn't look to good right now.
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Seems like they're pressing ahead with the launch countdown. Follow along in Spaceflightnow's Mission Status Center until the NASA provided live feed begins: http://spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/cosmic/status.html
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T-minus 4 hours and counting.
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Service structure now moving away from the Minotaur.
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Service structure now in launch position.
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T-minus 3 hours and counting.
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T-minus 2 hours and counting.
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We have live video: http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/video/vafb.ram
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Remember, anything that is entered into our live threads must be orignal. The source has to be such things as the webcast provided, not other site's coverage (as they are using their own orginal data).
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I haven't seen a rocket launch in such a bad weather. Anybody knows what are the weather requirements for Minotaur launch?
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No vehicle can launch in precip in the US (all have a flight through precipitation rule). But Atlas 5 in Dec. 04 was pretty close :-) It was raining within a couple miles of the pad (on me!) and they found a hole in the clouds and went.
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Why US rockets are prohibited to fly in the rain?
Is it a safety measure or they are not capable of flying in such conditions?
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Flight through precipitation is dangerous...a rain drop is like a marble when you are travelling hundreds of miles per hour. But if they find a hole moving towards the pad they will proceed. I've been through two launches like that. The other rules pertain to cloud cover and cloud types.
I don't know what the wx rules are elsewhere (esp. Russia).
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I think it is primarly because that any flight through precipitation might trigger a lightning which an hit the vehicle and possibly ending the flight.
This is what happened to Apollo 12 which got hit by lightning twice and got the primary electrical system in the CSM knocked offline.
If it hadn't been for the backup electrical system, Apollo 12 would have been forced to abort the launch.
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Lightning rules are even more strict...but precip is its own issue (so even if there is no threat for lightning they still won't go). Lightning rules do not allow any chance for lightning to form within 15 miles of the pad on average. Weather reconaissance planes and field mills determine real time conditions during launch.
Throughout the years they have made the rules stricter, such as with Apollo 12, and more recently in 1987 when an Atlas Centaur was taken down by lightning. Apollo 12 launched into a thunderstorm so they decided not to launch when one was right overheard. But the mileage keeps increasing.
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Can you see the clouds moving on the background? They are moving pretty fast. I think we may have a window in the sky but I don't know how fast are the winds blowing. That may become an issue.
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They routinely launch in the low marine layer at VAFB, which is thin but low, so it's hard to tell what's what just looking at the screen. Cloud violations are based mainly on thickness, plus cloud type second and debris and precip within as well.
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Abort.
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Something with the first stage.
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Is that a thermal blanket around the first stage? It appears to have partially separated,
but not cleanly.
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A sensor of the first stage malfunctioned. The thermal blanket separated succesfuly.
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Approx. 25 minutes needed to recharge the batteries of the space craft. After that they will make another launch attempt.
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Count at T-14 minutes.
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T-1 minute and counting.
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Liftoff.
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The full story and some great images have been posted at spaceflightnow:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/minotaur/cosmic/status.html