Ariane 5 Launches Skynet 5C And Turksat 3A Satellites

An Ariane 5 rocket launched the Skynet 5C and Turksat 3A satellites, lifting off from the European spaceport in French Guiana, South America, Arianespace announced.

Skynet 5C was built by EADS Astrium under contract to Paradigm Secure Communications, which will operate the sat for the U.K. Ministry of Defence.

Turksat 3A was built by Thales Alenia Space, to be operated by Turksat. It goes into a geosynchronous orbit at 42 degrees East, to provide communications for Turkey, Europe and the Middle East.

GLAST Launches From Cape Canaveral To Begin Hunt For Dark Matter

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, roared off launch pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and headed for space, slipping into a 350-mile-high orbit to begin a hunt for mysterious matter in the universe, NASA announced.

A Delta II rocket lifted GLAST in a daylit launch, attaining orbit in 75 minutes and drawing control center cheers when GLAST separated from the second stage. Shortly thereafter, solar arrays deployed and began providing the electrical power that GLAST requires. The Delta II, a traditional product of The Boeing Co. [BA], now is offered by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT].

The operations team continues to check out the spacecraft subsystems.

GLAST, built by General Dynamics Corp. [GD], will begin to transmit initial instrument data after about three weeks. The telescope will explore the most extreme environments in the universe, searching for signs of new laws of physics and investigating what composes mysterious dark matter. It will seek explanations for how black holes accelerate immense jets of material to nearly light speed, and look for clues to crack the mysteries behind powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. GLAST will detect thousands of gamma-ray sources, most of which will be super-massive black holes in the cores of distant galaxies.

With high sensitivity, GLAST is the first imaging gamma-ray observatory to survey the entire sky every day. It will give scientists a unique opportunity to learn about the ever-changing universe at extreme energies.

Once on orbit, systems continue to operate nominally, said GLAST program manager Kevin Grady, of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"After a 60-day checkout and initial calibration period, we’ll begin science operations," said Steve Ritz, GLAST project scientist at Goddard. "GLAST soon will be telling scientists about many new objects to study, and this information will be available on the internet for the world to see."

The GLAST mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.

Ariane 5 Solid Rocket Booster Tested

An Ariane 5 solid rocket booster was test fired at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, South America.

The test checked the qualification status of the Ariane 5 launch system, evaluating both current production hardware and qualifying required modifications to the launcher before they begin service.

The main goal of the test was to verify the qualification status of the current solid rocket booster (MPS – Moteur Propergol Solide) production with respect to potential manufacturing process drifts.

Improvements and new materials to deal with current obsolescence were tested, as were modifications made to improve the MPS behavior, especially in reducing pressure oscillations.

The test was performed in the booster engine test stand (BEAP – Banc d’Essais des Accelerateurs a Poudre), a test facility specifically designed for MPS vertical testing.

During the test, which lasted about 140 seconds, the motor delivered a mean thrust of approximately 600 tons.

The booster was thoroughly instrumented and around 560 parameters were recorded throughout the test to monitor its performance and to provide the data required to evaluate the different test objectives. Initial analysis of the data confirms that performance was in line with predictions.

NASA’s Shuttle and Rocket Missions

A variety of vehicles, launch sites on both U.S. coasts, shifting dates and times… the NASA Launch Schedule is easy to decipher by checking out our Launch Schedule 101 that explains how it all works!

Updated — June 9, 2008 – 3:20 p.m. EDT

Legend: + Targeted For | *No Earlier Than (Tentative) | **To Be Determined

 

2008 Launches

Date: June 20

Mission: OSTM

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta II

Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base – Launch Pad SLC-2

Launch Window: 12:46 a.m. – 12:55 a.m. PDT /3:46 a.m. – 3:55 a.m. EDT

Description: The Ocean Surface Topography Mission on the Jason-2 satellite will be a follow-on to the Jason mission.

Date: Sept. 13 *

 

Mission: IBEX

Launch Vehicle: Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL Rocket

Launch Site: Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll

Description: IBEX’s science objective is to discover the global interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium and will achieve this objective by taking a set of global energetic neutral atom images that will answer four fundamental science questions.

Date: Sept. 14 +

Mission: TacSat-3

Launch Vehicle: Orbital Sciences Minotaur Rocket

Launch Site: Wallops Flight Facility – Goddard Space Flight Center

Description: NASA will support the Air Force launch of the TacSat-3 satellite, managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate. TacSat-3 will demonstrate the capability to furnish real-time data to the combatant commander. NASA Ames will fly a microsat and NASA Wallops will fly the CubeSats on this flight in addition to providing the launch range.

Date: Oct. 8 +

Mission: STS-125

Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Atlantis

Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A

Description: Space Shuttle Atlantis will fly seven astronauts into space for the fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. During the 11-day flight, the crew will repair and improve the observatory’s capabilities through 2013.

Date: Nov. 10 +

Mission: STS-126

Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Endeavour

Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A

Description: Space Shuttle Endeavour launching on assembly flight ULF2, will deliver a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module to the International Space Station.

Date: Nov. 13

Mission: STSS Demonstrators Program – Missile Defense Agency

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta II

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – Launch Complex 17, Pad A

Description: STSS Demonstrators Program is a midcourse tracking technology demonstrator and is part of an evolving ballistic missile defense system. STSS is capable of tracking objects after boost phase and provides trajectory information to other sensors and interceptors. To be launched by NASA for the Missile Defense Agency.

Date: Nov. 24 *

 

Mission: LRO/LCROSS

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Atlas V

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – Launch Complex 41

Description: The mission objectives of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite are to advance the Vision for Space Exploration by confirming the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at either the Moon’s North or South Pole.

Date: Dec. 1 *

Mission: SDO

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Atlas V

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – Launch Complex 41

Description: The first Space Weather Research Network mission in the Living With a Star (LWS) Program of NASA.

Date: Dec. 4 +

Mission: STS-119

Launch Vehicle: Space Shuttle Discovery

Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center – Launch Pad 39A

Description: Space Shuttle Discovery launching on assembly flight 15A, will deliver the fourth starboard truss segment to the International Space Station.

Date: Dec. 12 *

Mission: GOES-O

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta IV

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – Launch Complex 37

Description: NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are actively engaged in a cooperative program, the multimission Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite series N-P. This series will be a vital contributor to weather, solar and space operations, and science.

2009 Launches

Date: Jan. 15

Mission: OCO

Launch Vehicle: Orbital Sciences Taurus Rocket

Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base – Launch Pad SLC 576-E

Description: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is a new Earth orbiting mission sponsored by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder Program.

Date: Feb. 1

Mission: NOAA-N Prime

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta II

Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base – Launch Pad SLC-2

Description: NOAA-N Prime is the latest polar-orbiting satellite developed by NASA/Goddard Spaceflight Center for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA uses two satellites, a morning and afternoon satellite, to ensure every part of the Earth is observed at least twice every 12 hours. NOAA-N will collect information about Earth’s atmosphere and environment to improve weather prediction and climate research across the globe.

Date: Feb. 16

Mission: Kepler

Launch Vehicle: United Launch Alliance Delta II

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – Launch Complex 17 – Pad 17-B

Description: The Kepler Mission, a NASA Discovery mission, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to detect and characterize hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone.

Date: June 15

Mission: Glory

Launch Vehicle: Orbital Sciences Taurus Rocket

Launch Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base – Launch Pad SLC 576-E

Description: The Glory Mission will help increase our understanding of the Earth’s energy balance by collecting data on the properties of aerosols and black carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere and how the Sun’s irradiance affects the Earth’s climate