Nighttime Rocket Launch Tuesday Visible from US East Coast

[Buster's Uncle]

Nighttime Rocket Launch Tuesday Visible from US East Coast
SPACE.com
By Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist  November 18, 2013 7:11 AM






Update: Tonight's Minotaur rocket launch is will set a record when it puts 29 satellites into orbit. See our latest story here: Record-Setting Rocket Launch to Loft 29 Satellites Tonight: How to Watch Live

NASA and the U.S. military will launch a record payload of 29 satellites from a Virginia spaceport Tuesday night (Nov. 19) on a mission that could create a spectacular sight for skywatchers along the U.S. East Coast, weather permitting.

The U.S. Air Force launch will send an Orbital Sciences Minotaur 1 rocket into orbit from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va., sometime during a two-hour launch window that opens Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. EST (0030 Nov. 20 GMT).

The nighttime launch could light up the sky for millions of observers along a wide swath of the Eastern Seaboard, and could be visible from just northeastern Canada and Maine to Florida, and from as far inland as Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky, depending on local weather conditions, according to NASA and Orbital Sciences visibility maps.

The U.S. military's Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office is sponsoring Tuesday's launch. You can watch the nighttime launch live online here, courtesy of NASA, beginning at 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT).



The launch of a Minotaur I rocket for the U.S. Air Force ORS-3 mission is scheduled to occur on November 19


One launch, many satellites

Dubbed the ORS 3 mission, Tuesday's launch will test automated launch vehicle trajectory targeting and range safety systems. Specifically, the mission will be to launch STPSat 3, a host spacecraft for five experiments and sensors to measure the space environment. Employing such capabilities on future space missions could reduce costs and the time required to prepare rockets for launch.

Another 28 CubeSats are housed inside "wafers" designed to deploy from the Minotaur upper stage once it reaches its 310-mile (500 kilometers) orbit. The satellites are enclosed inside the Minotaur's protective nose cone fairing, which is flying in the 61-inch diameter configuration for this launch.

Located just south of Assateague Island, Va., NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island is home to a multi-user spaceport located on Virginia's Eastern Shore. Tuesday's planned evening launch would mark the second launch a Minotaur rocket from this coastal Virginia range in just the last three months.

Over the years, similar rocket launches have routinely taken place from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. While many West Coast residents may be quite familiar with such launch sightings, they are somewhat unusual in the East (though they have become more common in recent years).  Still, Tuesday evening's launch may end up surprising millions of people if it goes off as planned.



The ORS-3 mission is scheduled to occur on November 19, 2013, with a planned launch window from 7:30-9:15pm EST


Launch visibility details

Visibility maps from Orbital Sciences shows the likely ranges of visibility for Tuesday night's launch, including details on how high in the sky it will appear and how many seconds will elapse before the rocket first becomes visible above the horizon.

The four-stage Minotaur 1 rocket will be launched on a southeast trajectory and should be visible, depending on cloud cover and one's viewing location, from northern Maine and southern Quebec province to coastal Georgia. It may also be seen as far west as eastern Kentucky. The Stage 3 cutoff will take place at a distance of approximately 300 miles (482 km) downrange from Wallops Island. That works out to a potential viewing radius of up to 1,000 miles (1,600 km).

Those who witnessed the launch of Orbital Sciences' first Minotaur 5 rocket launch on Sept. 6 that propelled NASA's LADEE spacecraft toward the moon should see basically the same sight: A light in the sky similar to a very bright star shining with a yellow-white tinge. It may also seem that the rocket dips back to Earth as it moves farther away from the observer — just as a ship appears to sink as it moves out to sea — but actually the rocket is going higher, faster and farther from populated areas.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Tuesday night's launch, or any other night sky view, and you'd like to share it for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.



This image shows how observers in New York City at the "Top of the Rock" in Rockefeller Center can see the launch


A higher trajectory

A bonus with the upcoming flight is that the rocket will appear to climb to a noticeably higher altitude in the sky compared to the LADEE mission.

For example: From the New York City metropolitan area, September's LADEE launch only reached an altitude of about 10 degrees above the horizon (the equivalent of your clenched fist held at arm's length).  In the case of Tuesday's launch, the Minotaur 1 is expected to climb to an altitude of 15 to 20 degrees. 

The key to making a sighting is to have a clear, unobstructed view of the horizon in the direction of Wallops Island. For example, a viewer in Raleigh, N.C., should look toward the northeast; in Providence, R.I., you should face southwest; in Pittsburgh, Pa., it'll be in the southeast.

The first two stages of the Minotaur 1 are decommissioned Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles, while the two upper stages utilize Pegasus rocket motors, built for the U.S. Air Force by Orbital Sciences Corporation.

Prior to the very first Minotaur launch from Wallops Island in December 2006, Jay Pittman, Chief of the Wallops Range and Management office noted: "This vehicle has spent most of its life in the nation's defense, and the level of confidence we have in this vehicle is quite high; It is something that has flown many, many times."

Indeed, this attempt will be the 25th overall launch of the Minotaur family of rockets and the sixth Minotaur launch from the Wallops Flight Facility.


For more details

Android users have the option of downloading the new “What’s Up at Wallops” app, which contains information on the launch as well as a compass showing the precise direction for launch viewing. The app is available for download at: http://go.nasa.gov/17veCYT. For Launch updates call: (757) 824-2050.

SPACE.com partner Spaceflight Now is also providing blow-by-blow coverage of the ORS-3 mission via the Mission Status Center, which will also include a launch webcast feed.


http://news.yahoo.com/nighttime-rocket-launch-tuesday-visible-us-east-coast-121133757.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Record-Setting Rocket Launch to Loft 29 Satellites Tonight: How to Watch Live
SPACE.com
By Mike Wall, Senior Writer  6 hours ago
 




The United States Air Force plans to blast nearly 30 satellites into orbit tonight (Nov. 19) in a record-setting launch that should be visible from a large stretch of the U.S. East Coast, weather permitting.

The ORS-3 mission, which is run by the U.S military's Operationally Responsive Space Office, is slated to lift off atop a Minotaur 1 rocket tonight from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Viriginia. The launch window extends from 7:30 p.m. through 9:15 p.m. EST (0030 through 0215 GMT on Nov. 20).

The potentially spectacular nighttime launch may be visible from northeastern Canada and Maine down to Florida, and from as far inland as Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky, according to maps provided by NASA and Orbital Sciences, the aerospace firm providing the Minotaur 1. You can also watch the launch live on SPACE.com beginning at 6:30 p.m. EST, courtesy of NASA TV.

The Minotaur 1 will be hauling a cornucopia of 29 satellites tonight — the most ever lofted in a single launch, mission officials said.

"I believe we are setting the record here with this mission," Jason Armstrong, ORS-3 launch integration lead from space services provider TriSept Corp., told reporters in a pre-launch press conference on Nov. 14.

ORS-3's primary payload is the Air Force's STPSat-3 spacecraft, which was built as part of a military program designed to reduce the time and cost required to get satellites to the launchpad. STPSat-3 itself carries five different experiments and sensors that will measure various aspects of the space environment.



This tiny cubesat, dubbed TJ3Sat, is set to launch into space on Nov. 19, 2013


The other 28 satellites aboard the Minotaur 1 are tiny craft known as cubesats. These satellites were provided by a variety of institutions and will perform a broad range of experiments and tasks in Earth orbit.

For example, PhoneSat 2.4 — which was built by engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. — marks the next step in the space agency's efforts to develop off-the-shelf smartphone technology for use in space.

NASA launched three other PhoneSats this past April on the maiden flight of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket, but that trio operated for just a week or so in orbit.

'Were taking PhoneSat to another step in terms of capability, along with seeing if the satellite continues to function for an extended period of time,' Andrew Petro, program executive for small spacecraft technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.



PhoneSat 1.0 (right) and PhoneSat 2.4 both use commercially available smartphones as the brains


The Minotaur 1 will also be toting TJ3Sat, the first satellite designed and built by high-school students. (The kids attend Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va. — hence the spacecraft's name.)

TJ3Sat was conceived partly to help get kids around the world interested in science, technology, engineering and math, said officials with Orbital, which helped the high schoolers on the project. Students and ham-radio operators will be able to exchange data with the bantam spacecraft as it zips around the planet, they added.

To learn more about the satellites launching today and what they will do, check out this list provided by the Operationally Responsive Space Office.

ORS-3 will also test out and validate a number of launch and range improvements for both NASA and the military, space agency officials said. For these reasons, and because it aims to help bring down costs and preparation time for key satellite projects, the Air Force is also calling ORS-3 the Enabler Mission.

"Ultimately, the ORS-3 is about enabling the warfighter to perform his or her mission efficiently and effectively," ORS-3 mission manager Jeff Welsh, of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, told reporters on Nov. 14. "We support that critical effort through rapid response and reduced-cost space operations."


http://news.yahoo.com/record-setting-rocket-launch-loft-29-satellites-tonight-131841174.html