Here's a msg from someone who saw launch from Flagstaff (copied from my astronomy group). I almost cried when I read that the initial boost contrail wasn't the end of the show. I look forward to seeing his images.
> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
> From: <jeremy@...>
> To: az-observing@...
> Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Juno Launch from New Mexico
> Date: Wed, 02 Mar 2011 07:37:27 -0700
>
> I enjoyed a beautiful view of the launch this morning. I was too busy running a couple cameras and a sketch pad to note the exact time but it seems to have launched about 10 minutes into the window around 6:40 AM. It gained a lot more altitude than I expected. The initial vertical boost contrail picked up a nice zig-zag pretty quickly. The trail disappeared for what seemed like about a minute and I wondered if the show was over. But a brilliant arc reappeared much higher in the sky with the apex of the plume beginning to blossom as the missile rose above the thickest layers of atmosphere.
>
> The remaining trajectory downrange was lost to twilight. If this had happened perhaps a half hour earlier, the larger, fainter plume may have added to the show. The brighter arc of exhaust was still a stunning sight as it twisted up amidst a colorful twilight and blazing orange cirrus. I'm planning to get the video and a few photos posted later today. I hope others had a chance to see it.
>
> Jeremy Perez
> Flagstaff
>
www.beltofvenus.net
From
http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/release.asp?prid=768"Orbital Successfully Launches Patriot Target Vehicle for Missile Defense Test
-- Company Conducts Second PTV Juno Mission for U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center --
(Dulles, VA 2 March 2011) – Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) announced today that it successfully launched a Patriot Target Vehicle (PTV) under a direct contract with the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Space Development and Test Directorate (SD). The PTV served as an intercept target for the Lower Tier Project Office Patriot missile defense system. The PTV was launched on March 2, 2011 from Fort Wingate Launch Complex-96 into White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico. It flew a southerly trajectory over New Mexico into WSMR and was intercepted by the Patriot Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptor system during reentry. This PTV, known as Juno, was the second of two targets Orbital is under contract to launch in support of the Patriot MSE test and evaluation program."
- Ed Kyle
Here's a msg from someone who saw launch from Flagstaff (copied from my astronomy group). I almost cried when I read that the initial boost contrail wasn't the end of the show. I look forward to seeing his images.
...
running a couple cameras and a sketch pad
Are there any photos to post?
Hello,
This is my first post to the forum. I observed the Juno launch from about 160 miles west in Flagstaff, AZ (as noted in the message that ginahoy posted). It sounds like the booster contrail* was difficult to see from central to southern Arizona. I'm attaching a photo that shows both contrails.
Video can be seen here:
Full report and other photos can be seen here:
Report: Juno Target Missile Launch - March 2, 2011*Apologies if I've got the terminology wrong.
[edit: woah...looks like the forum auto-embeds YouTube links...hope that's ok...]
This is my first post to the forum. I observed the Juno launch from about 160 miles west in Flagstaff, AZ (as noted in the message that ginahoy posted). It sounds like the booster contrail* was difficult to see from central to southern Arizona. I'm attaching a photo that shows both contrails.
Jeremy - thank you for posting the photo and the video of the launch. Welcome to the forum!
Successful Trident II D5 Test flight
The Navy conducted the 135th successful test flight of a Trident II D5 Missile today [March 1, 2011] off the coast of Southern California. The missile was launched at approximately 1 p.m. PST from an Ohio-class Trident ballistic missile submarine. The Trident II D5 missile is the Navy’s sea based strategic deterrent.
Photo Credit: U.S. Third Fleet's Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/ThirdFleet
Successful Trident II D5 Test flight
The Navy conducted the 135th successful test flight of a Trident II D5 Missile today [March 1, 2011] off the coast of Southern California.
Anyone know the name of the submarine the launch was from?
Also, anyone know the exact location of the launch - know it is around San Diego but I would like more precision if any one knows.
Thanks
Successful Trident II D5 Test flight
The Navy conducted the 135th successful test flight of a Trident II D5 Missile today [March 1, 2011] off the coast of Southern California.
Anyone know the name of the submarine the launch was from?
Also, anyone know the exact location of the launch - know it is around San Diego but I would like more precision if any one knows.
Thanks
There were some pictures of the launch next to pictures of the USS Nevada, so I took the implication that was the sub.
They keep the locations of the west coast launches very quiet - I don't think we know to within 500 km or so, presumably it's within the Point Mugu range area somewhere?
On April 15, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) carried out another Aegis SM-3 test, catalogued as FTM-15 and nicknamed Stellar Charon.
At 2:52 a.m. EDT (6:52 p.m. April 15 Marshall Island Time), an intermediate-range ballistic LV-2 missile target was launched from the Reagan Test Site, located on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, approximately 2,300 miles southwest of Hawaii.
A forward-based AN/TPY-2 X-band transportable radar, located on Wake Island, detected and tracked the threat missile and sent trajectory information to the Command, Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) system, which processed and transmitted remote target data to the destroyer USS O’KANE, located to the west of Hawaii. The intercept SM-3 (the first Aegis BMD version 3.6.1) was launched approx. 11 minutes after the launch of the target, and succesfully destroyed the target.
Source:
http://www.mda.mil/news/11news0007.html
On April 26, 2011, the K-84 Ekaterinburg submarine of the Project 667BDRM class successfully launched a R-29RM Sineva missile. The launch was performed from a submerged submarine deployed in Barents Sea. The Navy reported that all warheads reached their intended targets at the Kura test site in Kamchatka.
Source:
http://russianforces.org/blog/2011/04/successful_sineva_launch.shtml
A Black Brant IX rocket was launched from Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska on April 27, 2011. The primary objective of this mission (36.278 GT) was to conduct a test flight of a recently manufactured Black Brant motor that was cast using a new mixing process.
Source:
http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/
Can anyone point me at good reference material for the British "Skylark" sounding rocket? I'd really like to attempt a very highly detailed CGI version, but I am struggling to find good high res reference images.
With so many flown, it should not be THAT hard!
Thanks,
Nick
China successfully launched a space environment-monitoring rocket Saturday morning from the southern island province of Hainan as part of the nation's key "Meridian Project."
The rocket was sent into space at 7 a.m. from a launch site in Hainan, said a statement from the Center for Space Science and Applied Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Source:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-05/07/c_13863911.htm
Ed beat me to it - I found this in Chinese
http://www.stdaily.com/kjrb/content/2011-05/08/content_302799.htmwhich (thanks to google translate etc) seems to indicate launch at 0702
(which is 2302 UTC May 6 if they are talking Beijing time) with 196.6 km apogee
and 420s flight time, carrying an extensible electric field antenna, a Langmuir probe
and a GPS system for trajectory measurement. It also reports a previous weather
rocket launch on Jun 3 2010, possibly to 60 km. Tianying is 'Space Eagle';
the launch site was referred to as 'tan kong bu huojian fashechang fashe", Ministry sounding rocket launch site (didn't say which ministry).
Kunpeng-1 seems to be the name of the payload ("radiosonde"?)