This has been sitting in storage since Nov 2001 ?? How much does NASA spend every year to store satellites it has built but never launched ?
DSCOVR goes to Sun-Earth L1...what's the orbital target for the Falcon 9 for this mission? And then DSCOVR's thrusters take over, there's no other upper stage?
So, they're launching one element to SEL-1 and Sunjammer will be released where? Simultaneously with the other payload? I wonder what the total payload mass is here that F9 is going to have to push through escape into a heliocentric orbit.
Thanks for the link. Sunjammer is pretty cool.
Despite the cracks from some about a $100 million screensaver, I always though that a publicly available, real time feed of the planet from that location would be one of the psychologically important accomplishments of the whole space program. There's just something about seeing it in real time that would give a lot of people a perspective they've never had. I was never sure if that feed was still a part of the mission.
So, they're launching one element to SEL-1 and Sunjammer will be released where? Simultaneously with the other payload? I wonder what the total payload mass is here that F9 is going to have to push through escape into a heliocentric orbit.[edit]Fixed typo
I am guessing that this 2014 flight would use Falcon 9 v1.1.