Orbital Sciences Delivers NASA NuSTAR Satellite to Launch Site
By Jeffrey Hill | June 8, 2012
[Satellite TODAY 06-07-12] Orbital Sciences’ PegasusR rocket has arrived at its launch site in the mid-Pacific Ocean to orbit NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) satellite, the company announced June 7.
Orbital said the launch is currently scheduled for June 13, subject to final pre-launch testing and acceptable weather conditions at the time of launch.
NuSTAR, designed as the first focusing hard x-ray telescope in space, will use high-energy x-rays to detect black holes and other energetic phenomena in the universe for NASA research purposes. NuSTAR will have more than one hundred times the sensitivity of previous instruments to detect black holes.
In addition to launch services, Orbital provided the NuSTAR mission with its spacecraft platform and overall system integration. The launch of the NuSTAR satellite will be the 41st Pegasus mission since the rocket’s introduction in 1990.