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#360
by
Chris Bergin
on 28 May, 2010 12:44
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Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., (May 28, 2010) - A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket with the Air Force’s Global Positioning System GPS IIF SV-1 (GPS IIF SV-1) satellite blasts off from its Space Launch Complex-37 launch pad at 11 p.m. EDT Thursday night. GPS IIF SV-1 is the first in a series of next generation GPS satellites. Following its nearly three hour, 33 minute flight; it will join a worldwide timing and navigation system utilizing 24 satellites approximately 11,000 miles above the Earth’s surface. Photo by Pat Corkery, United Launch Alliance
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#361
by
HIPAR
on 28 May, 2010 13:07
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Here's the official launch notice:
NOTICE ADVISORY TO NAVSTAR USERS (NANU) 2010098
SUBJ: SVN 62 (PRN 25) LAUNCH JDAY 148
1. NANU TYPE: LAUNCH
NANU NUMBER: 2010098
NANU DTG: 280634Z MAY 2010
SVN: 62
PRN: 25
LAUNCH JDAY: 148
LAUNCH TIME ZULU: 0300
2. GPS SATELLITE SVN 62 (PRN 25) WAS LAUNCHED ON JDAY 148 THIS SATELLITE
WILL UNDERGO EXTENSIVE ON-ORBIT CHECK OUT AND TESTING PRIOR TO BEING SET
HEALTHY. FORCE DEVELOPMENT EVALUATION WILL OCCUR PRIOR TO AND AFTER THE
SPACE VEHICLE IS SET HEALTHY.
A USABINIT NANU WILL BE SENT WHEN THE SATELITTE IS SET ACTIVE TO
SERVICE.
3. POC: CIVILIAN - NAVCEN AT 703-313-5900,
http://HTTP://WWW.NAVCEN.USCG.GOV MILITARY - GPS OPERATIONS CENTER AT
http://HTTP://gps.afspc.af.mil/GPSOC, DSN 560-2541,
COMM 719-567-2541,
[email protected],
http://HTTP://gps.afspc.af.mil/GPSOC/GPS MILITARY ALTERNATE - JOINT SPACE OPERATIONS CENTER, DSN 276- 3514.
COMM 805-606-3514.
[email protected]
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#362
by
William Graham
on 28 May, 2010 13:09
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Has its USA designation been confirmed yet? I'm assuming it'll be USA-213.
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#363
by
edkyle99
on 28 May, 2010 13:17
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Delta 349 was the third Delta 4 flight in less than six months from SLC 37B, a Delta 4 launch tempo not previously achieved from a single pad.
- Ed Kyle
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#364
by
William Graham
on 28 May, 2010 14:03
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Delta 349 was the third Delta 4 flight in less than six months from SLC 37B, a Delta 4 launch tempo not previously achieved from a single pad.
- Ed Kyle
But there won't be another until October, and given the past record I doubt if that will go on time.
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#365
by
jcm
on 28 May, 2010 14:35
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Just a quick request: Could anyone point me to a bio (official or otherwise) of Steve Agid, ULA's announcer? I've heard him on countless D-IV and A-V launches but it occurs to me that his voice is just about all I know. Call me curious. 
He isn't an announcer just a telemetry engineer, who worked shuttle payloads before Delta IV. Doesn't work Atlas
Jim - *just* a telemetry engineer? I think some of us here would rank "engineer" above "announcer" :-)
(yes, I know you didn't mean it that way, and yes, PAOs are important too and I love you all ;-)) - jcm
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#366
by
ugordan
on 28 May, 2010 14:37
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I think some of us here would rank "engineer" above "announcer" :-)
*raises hand*
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#367
by
jcm
on 28 May, 2010 14:43
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Has its USA designation been confirmed yet? I'm assuming it'll be USA-213.
Confirmed as USA 213. But Spacetrack also calls it Navstar 65,
despite the NANU labelling it SVN 62 - I am puzzled, can anyone enlighten?
Space-Track gives transfer orbit of 252 x 20464 km x 43.3 deg,
and Delta stage orbit of 20457 x 21674 x 54.7 deg, but no final orbit yet
for the payload. Based on ground track and other data I infer initial parking orbit was around 200 x 300 km, 37.5 deg, with large error bars.
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#368
by
William Graham
on 28 May, 2010 15:43
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Confirmed as USA 213. But Spacetrack also calls it Navstar 65,
despite the NANU labelling it SVN 62 - I am puzzled, can anyone enlighten?
Could be a typo. It is also PRN-25, so they could have got the two mixed up.
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#369
by
edkyle99
on 28 May, 2010 16:52
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Delta 349 was the third Delta 4 flight in less than six months from SLC 37B, a Delta 4 launch tempo not previously achieved from a single pad.
- Ed Kyle
But there won't be another until October, and given the past record I doubt if that will go on time.
That will be a Heavy with an NRO payload. The Heavies seem to be vastly different animals than the Mediums. The shortest flight gap preceding a Heavy launch (to date) was one year and seven days. More than a year passed without a launch from 37B prior to all three Delta 4 Heavy launches!
- Ed Kyle
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#370
by
Space Pete
on 28 May, 2010 17:30
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#371
by
Damon Hill
on 28 May, 2010 21:01
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Delta 349 was the third Delta 4 flight in less than six months from SLC 37B, a Delta 4 launch tempo not previously achieved from a single pad.
- Ed Kyle
But there won't be another until October, and given the past record I doubt if that will go on time.
That will be a Heavy with an NRO payload. The Heavies seem to be vastly different animals than the Mediums. The shortest flight gap preceding a Heavy launch (to date) was one year and seven days. More than a year passed without a launch from 37B prior to all three Delta 4 Heavy launches!
- Ed Kyle
Seems like these NRO payloads are at least as much to blame for delays as the launcher itself.
Apart from having to beef up the core, why would the Heavy be significantly different from the Mediums? Parts/systems commonality was supposed to be a big advantage of the Delta 4 family's concept.
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#372
by
Nick L.
on 28 May, 2010 21:49
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Delta 349 was the third Delta 4 flight in less than six months from SLC 37B, a Delta 4 launch tempo not previously achieved from a single pad.
- Ed Kyle
But there won't be another until October, and given the past record I doubt if that will go on time.
That will be a Heavy with an NRO payload. The Heavies seem to be vastly different animals than the Mediums. The shortest flight gap preceding a Heavy launch (to date) was one year and seven days. More than a year passed without a launch from 37B prior to all three Delta 4 Heavy launches!
- Ed Kyle
Seems like these NRO payloads are at least as much to blame for delays as the launcher itself.
Apart from having to beef up the core, why would the Heavy be significantly different from the Mediums? Parts/systems commonality was supposed to be a big advantage of the Delta 4 family's concept.
One of the Delta managers likened it to "launching three rockets at the same time" - the interaction of all three makes things more challenging.
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#373
by
yinzer
on 28 May, 2010 21:52
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Well, the second Delta IV-Heavy launch was significantly delayed after the liquid oxygen leak damaged the pad. The third launch was for a super-expensive NRO SIGINT bird, so there may have been payload-specific work. Then there's the need to check out and mate three cores instead of one.
This was also the 10th Delta IV-M launch, while there have only been 3 Delta IV-H launches to date.
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#374
by
EE Scott
on 28 May, 2010 22:04
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Delta 349 was the third Delta 4 flight in less than six months from SLC 37B, a Delta 4 launch tempo not previously achieved from a single pad.
- Ed Kyle
But there won't be another until October, and given the past record I doubt if that will go on time.
That will be a Heavy with an NRO payload. The Heavies seem to be vastly different animals than the Mediums. The shortest flight gap preceding a Heavy launch (to date) was one year and seven days. More than a year passed without a launch from 37B prior to all three Delta 4 Heavy launches!
- Ed Kyle
Seems like these NRO payloads are at least as much to blame for delays as the launcher itself.
Apart from having to beef up the core, why would the Heavy be significantly different from the Mediums? Parts/systems commonality was supposed to be a big advantage of the Delta 4 family's concept.
One of the Delta managers likened it to "launching three rockets at the same time" - the interaction of all three makes things more challenging.
Oh great. They didn't think about that aspect of three cores during the design process for the Heavy? I wonder how responsive they would be with the seven-core Super Heavy concept they talk about from time to time. One launch every five years???
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#375
by
Rocket Guy
on 28 May, 2010 22:14
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There was a report earlier this year stating that a contract extension of something like $9 million extra was given to ensure the Heavy launches this October. I cannot remember where I saw it anymore.
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#376
by
Jim
on 28 May, 2010 22:18
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#377
by
jimvela
on 28 May, 2010 22:18
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Before I venture off-topic a bit, does anyone know how long before checkout of this GPS sat starts?
Oh great. They didn't think about that aspect of three cores during the design process for the Heavy? I wonder how responsive they would be with the seven-core Super Heavy concept they talk about from time to time. One launch every five years???
Why in the world would you want 7 D-IV cores?
If anything, find a way to put two large solids on the side and you have a heavy lifter ala the titan...
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#378
by
ugordan
on 28 May, 2010 22:26
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If anything, find a way to put two large solids on the side and you have a heavy lifter ala the titan...
D-IV H already exceeds Titan IV's lift. And Titan wasn't exactly cheap, probably in large part due to those same solid motors.
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#379
by
Ben the Space Brit
on 28 May, 2010 22:41
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Oh great. They didn't think about that aspect of three cores during the design process for the Heavy? I wonder how responsive they would be with the seven-core Super Heavy concept they talk about from time to time. One launch every five years???
Why in the world would you want 7 D-IV cores?
If anything, find a way to put two large solids on the side and you have a heavy lifter ala the titan...
FWIW, I think that the largest Delta-IV configurations that we're likely to see is the tri-core heavy with two GEM-60 SRMs on each core and the 4 x RL-10B-2 common upper stage. That would be about 50t IMLEO, pretty much sufficient for an LEO mission module and good enough for a two-launch or depot-supported single-launch of a BEO mission module and EDS.
