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#20 by Kim Keller on 22 Dec, 2011 16:21
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Alas, no. No cameras in the test bay.
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#21 by Ronsmytheiii on 20 Jan, 2012 17:05
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Quote
Processing and integration of the three stages comprising an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket are complete in processing facility 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California
Looks like a small space, probably could have used a fish eye
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=4
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#22 by Kim Keller on 24 Jan, 2012 21:16
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I don't think Randy has one. He's not part of PAO. The photos he takes are primarily in support of vehicle processing (think closeout photos), so a fisheye lens wouldn't be very useful.
I don't think NASA even has a PAO resident at VAFB. -
#23 by Kim Keller on 24 Jan, 2012 21:26
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Oh, BTW, we're gonna get started on Flight Sim 2 in an hour or so. The three rocket stages are now mated (you can't see S3 in the photos above).
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#24 by Mr. D on 25 Jan, 2012 01:00
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Also, the satellite has left Orbital about an hour ago. So, it should arrive at VAFB near the end of the week (maybe ?).
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#25 by jacqmans on 25 Jan, 2012 15:21
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News release: 2012-023 Jan. 25, 2012
NASA's NuSTAR Ships to Vandenberg for March 14 Launch
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-023&cid=release_2012-023
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, shipped to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Tuesday, to be mated to its Pegasus launch vehicle. The observatory will detect X-rays from objects ranging from our sun to giant black holes billions of light-years away. It is scheduled to launch March 14 from an aircraft operating out of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
"The NuSTAR mission is unique because it will be the first NASA mission to focus X-rays in the high-energy range, creating the most detailed images ever taken in this slice of the electromagnetic spectrum," said Fiona Harrison, the mission's principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
The observatory shipped from Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Va., where the spacecraft and science instrument were integrated. It is scheduled to arrive at Vandenberg on Jan. 27, where it will be mated to the Pegasus, also built by Orbital, on Feb. 17.
The mission will be launched from the L-1011 "Stargazer" aircraft, which will take off near the equator from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. NuSTAR and its Pegasus will fly from Vandenberg to Kwajalein attached to the underside of the L-1011, and are scheduled to arrive on March 7.
On launch day, after the airplane arrives at the planned drop site over the ocean, the Pegaus will drop from the L-1011 and carry NuSTAR to an orbit around Earth.
"NuSTAR is an engineering achievement, incorporating state-of-the-art high-energy X-ray mirrors and detectors that will enable years of astronomical discovery," said Yunjin Kim, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
NuSTAR's advanced telescope consists of two sets of 133 concentric shells of mirrors, which were shaped from flexible glass similar to that found in laptop screens. Because X-rays require large focusing distances, or focal lengths, the telescope has a lengthy 33-foot (10-meter) mast, which will unfold a week after launch.
These and other advances in technology will enable NuSTAR to explore the cosmic world of high-energy X-rays with much improved sensitivity and resolution over previous missions. During its two-year primary mission, NuSTAR will map the celestial sky in X-rays, surveying black holes, mapping supernova remnants, and studying particle jets travelling away from black holes near the speed of light.
NuSTAR also will probe the sun, looking for microflares theorized to be on the surface that could explain how the sun's million-degree corona, or atmosphere, is heated. It will even test a theory of dark matter, the mysterious substance making up about one-quarter of our universe, by searching the sun for evidence of a hypothesized dark matter particle.
"NuSTAR will provide an unprecedented capability to discover and study some of the most exotic objects in the universe, from the corpses of exploded stars in the Milky Way to supermassive black holes residing in the hearts of distant galaxies," said Lou Kaluzienski, NuSTAR program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
NuSTAR is a small-explorer mission managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech, JPL, Columbia University, New York, N.Y., NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the Danish Technical University in Denmark, the University of California, Berkeley, and ATK-Goleta. NuSTAR will be operated by U.C. Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.
For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar and http://www.nustar.caltech.edu/ .
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#26 by Kim Keller on 26 Jan, 2012 18:27
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I haven't done a full data review yet, but flight sim 2 went very smoothly. We continue to press on toward launch.
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#27 by Robotbeat on 26 Jan, 2012 19:17
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I haven't done a full data review yet, but flight sim 2 went very smoothly. We continue to press on toward launch.
Awesome. Good luck! -
#28 by jacqmans on 28 Jan, 2012 21:00
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Spacecraft Arrives
Workers position the payload transporter supporting the environmentally controlled shipping container enclosing NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft for transfer from the airlock to the high bay of processing facility 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Image credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB
Jan. 27, 2012
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/multimedia/gallery/gallery-index.html
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#29 by Ronsmytheiii on 03 Feb, 2012 14:19
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#30 by kevin-rf on 18 Feb, 2012 20:55
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One week delay:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/nustar/120218delay/
NASA press release:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/news/nustar20120217.htmlQuoteThe mission's launch is now scheduled for no earlier than March 21 to allow the launch vehicle team an additional week to complete necessary engineering reviews.
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#31 by TheMightyM on 01 Mar, 2012 17:23
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The latest from NASA's launching rockets page:Quote
Pegasus Fairing Installation Scheduled for Friday
Thu, 01 Mar 2012 08:34:37 AM EST
At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, closeouts of the NuSTAR spacecraft and the Pegasus payload fairing are under way. Fairing installation is scheduled to begin tomorrow.
When all testing and processing is complete, the integrated vehicle will be flown on Orbital's L-1011 carrier aircraft from Vandenberg to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean's Kwajalein Atoll for launch, which is currently scheduled for no earlier than March 21. -
#32 by jacqmans on 09 Mar, 2012 14:37
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News release: 2012-067 March 8, 2012
NASA to Hold Media Briefing About Upcoming NuSTAR Mission
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-067&cid=release_2012-067
NASA will hold a media briefing at 9 a.m. PDT (12 p.m. EDT) on Tuesday, March 13, to discuss the upcoming launch of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). The mission will use advanced optics and detectors, allowing astronomers to observe the high-energy X-ray sky with much greater sensitivity and clarity than any mission flown to-date. The televised briefing will take place at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Live streaming video of the briefing will be available at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv or at http://ustream.tv/nasajpl2.
NuSTAR will advance our understanding of how structure in the universe forms and evolves. It will observe some of the hottest, densest and most energetic objects in the universe, including black holes, their high-speed particle jets, ultra-dense neutron stars, supernova remnants, and our sun.
NuSTAR is targeted for launch no earlier than 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT) on March 22. The launch window extends to 12:30 p.m. PDT (3:30 p.m. EDT). The spacecraft will liftoff on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL launch vehicle, released from an aircraft originating from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Briefing Participants are:
-- Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington
-- Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
-- Daniel Stern, NuSTAR project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
-- Yunjin Kim, NuSTAR project manager at JPL
NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both in Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.
For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar and http://www.nustar.caltech.edu/ .
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#33 by Ronsmytheiii on 09 Mar, 2012 18:38
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Quote
Inside the Orbital Sciences processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, preparations to launch NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, are nearly complete. The spacecraft has been mated with its Pegasus XL rocket and enclosed in the Pegasus payload fairing
http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=232
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#34 by Mapperuo on 09 Mar, 2012 22:29
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Some rather poor NASA ELV snaps from just 10 minutes ago.
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#35 by Kim Keller on 09 Mar, 2012 22:41
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Yup, it's on the transfer trailer. Now all we need is a go for mate to the Tristar.
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#36 by Mapperuo on 09 Mar, 2012 23:54
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Tis back inside again.
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#37 by jacqmans on 12 Mar, 2012 19:34
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-042
NASA MARCH 13 NUSTAR MEDIA BRIEFING POSTPONED
WASHINGTON -- The Tuesday, March 13, media briefing to discuss the
upcoming launch of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR)
has been postponed. The spacecraft will lift off on an Orbital
Sciences Pegasus XL rocket, which will be released from an aircraft
originating from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The
mission's Flight Readiness Review (FRR) is being rescheduled for no
earlier than Thursday, March 15, to allow time for a review of data
and simulations to qualify software associated with a new Pegasus
flight computer.
A revised launch date will be set at the FRR. A prelaunch media
briefing will be rescheduled after the FRR is complete.
NuSTAR will use advanced optics and detectors, allowing astronomers to
observe the high-energy X-ray sky with much greater sensitivity and
clarity than any mission flown before. The mission will advance our
understanding of how structures in the universe form and evolve. It
will observe some of the hottest, densest and most energetic objects
in the universe, including black holes, their high-speed particle
jets, ultra-dense neutron stars, supernova remnants and our sun.
For more information about NuSTAR, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nustar
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#38 by TheMightyM on 16 Mar, 2012 17:59
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Major delay
. From the NASA "Launching rockets" page:QuoteAt the March 15 launch status meeting for NASA's NuSTAR mission set to launch aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket a decision was made to postpone the launch. The delay will allow additional time to assure that the flight software to be used with a new Pegasus flight computer will issue commands to the rocket as intended.
The time required to complete the work moves the launch period beyond the timeframe currently available on the range at the launch site. In the interim, NASA will coordinate with the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll to determine the earliest launch opportunity available, which is anticipated to be within the next couple of months. -
#39 by jacqmans on 16 Mar, 2012 18:41
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-045
LAUNCH OF NASA'S NUSTAR MISSION POSTPONED
WASHINGTON -- The planned launch of NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic
Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission has been postponed after a March 15
launch status meeting. The launch will be rescheduled to allow
additional time to confirm the flight software used by the launch
vehicle's flight computer will issue commands to the rocket as
intended.
The spacecraft will lift off on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket,
which will be released from an aircraft taking off from the Reagan
Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The time
required to complete the software review has moved NuSTAR beyond the
March timeframe currently available on the range at Kwajalein. In the
interim, NASA will coordinate with the launch site to determine the
earliest possible launch opportunity. This is expected to be within
the next two months.
NuSTAR will use advanced optics and detectors, allowing astronomers to
observe the high-energy X-ray sky with much greater sensitivity and
clarity than any mission flown before. The mission will advance our
understanding of how structures in the universe form and evolve. It
will observe some of the hottest, densest and most energetic objects
in the universe, including black holes, their high-speed particle
jets, ultra-dense neutron stars, supernova remnants, and our sun.
For more information about NuSTAR, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nustar
. From the NASA "Launching rockets" page: