[Launch Alert] Monday Vandenberg Launch

[Brian Webb]

		ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
 				  
				Brian Webb, KD6NRP
			 Ventura County, California
			 E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net
		Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp
 				       
					    2002 October 12 (Saturday) 18:05 PDT
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			MONDAY VANDENBERG LAUNCH

A refurbished Minuteman II strategic missile is scheduled for launch
this Monday evening from Vandenberg AFB. The vehicle will send an
unarmed warhead and decoys to the central Pacific as part of a missile
defense test.

The launch window runs from 19:00 to 23:00 PDT. Although there's no
guarantee when the Minuteman will be launched, there's a good chance
it will go at 19:00 or shortly afterwards.

If the Minuteman is launched between 19:00 and 19:19 PDT, the vehicle
will exit the Earth's shadow as it heads downrange. The exhaust
plume will be backlit by the Sun with a twilight or dark sky as a
backdrop, creating an impressive sight.

The display could be visible across a large portion of the U.S.
southwest and Mexico.

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	The following is a Defense Department press advisory
	related to Monday's launch

PRESS ADVISORY from the United States Department of Defense

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) will conduct a developmental flight
test to include the planned intercept of a long-range ballistic
missile target in support of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
test program on Oct. 14, 2002.

The test will involve the launch of an Orbital Suborbital Program
long-range missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The OSP, a
modified Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile, will carry a
mock warhead and decoys. About 20 minutes after the target missile is
launched, and about 4,800 miles away, a ground-based interceptor (GBI)
carrying a prototype exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) will launch
from the Ronald Reagan Missile Test Facility at Kwajalein Atoll in the
Republic of the Marshall Islands.  About 10 minutes later the
intercept is planned to take place at an altitude of approximately 140
miles above the central Pacific Ocean during the midcourse phase of
the target warhead's flight.

This will be an integrated system test, with all representative system
elements participating:  space-based missile warning sensor;
ground-based early warning radar, the prototype X-Band radar at
Kwajalein Atoll and the GMD battle management, command, control and
communications system located at Kwajalein Atoll and the Joint
National Integration Facility in Colorado Springs, Colo. Since the
system is in its research and development phase, these elements serve
as either prototypes or surrogates for system elements which are in
the developmental stage and have not yet been produced for actual
operational use.

A U.S. Navy Aegis destroyer, the USS John Paul Jones, will participate
in the test, using its SPY-1 radar to gather data about the target and
interceptor missiles.  While the ship's radar will not take part in
directing the interceptor to its target, the data gathered will be
used to confirm the potential role the SPY-1 radar and the Aegis
weapon system could play in a defense against long-range missile
targets.  This will be the first time an Aegis radar is participating
in a GMD flight test.

This will be the seventh intercept test of the Ground-Based Midcourse
Defense element research and development program. The first test on
Oct. 2, 1999 resulted in the successful intercept of a ballistic
missile target.  The second test took place on Jan. 18, 2000, and did
not achieve an intercept due to a clogged cooling pipe on the EKV, but
did successfully test the integrated system of elements. The third
test, on July 8, 2000, did not result in an intercept when the EKV and
booster rocket failed to separate. The fourth test, on July 14, 2001,
achieved a successful intercept of a ballistic missile target, as did
tests on Dec. 2, 2001 and March 15, 2002. These last three tests used
all GMD components as part of a fully integrated flight test.

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			VANDENBERG LAUNCH NET

Amateur radio operators interested in discussing the launch are
invited to participate in one of the Vandenberg Launch Nets beginning
at 18:30 PDT on Monday.

The primary Vandenberg Launch Net will be held on the the WB6OBB
repeater in Santa Barbara. This repeater has very wide coverage and
simulcasts on 147.000, 224.900, and 449.300 MHz.

Since Mondays's launch may be visible over a wide area, secondary
launch nets will be held on the 147.090 MHz Catalina Island repeater
and on 3.815 MHz, LSB. The Catalina repeater covers areas to the south
that the Santa Barbara repeater cannot. Meanwhile, 3.815 MHz is in the
high frequency, or shortwave, portion of the radio spectrum and covers
the western U.S.

There may also be some launch-related discussions on the Condor linked
repeater system, but these are not officially part of the launch nets
described above. The Condor system covers much of California and
currently consists of the following repeaters:

	223.840 Mount Vaca (Vacaville)
	224.600 Mount Hamilton (San Jose)
	224.900 Goat Mountain (Fresno)
	224.920 Tassajara Peak (San Luis Obispo)
	224.640 Shirley Peak (Lake Isabella)
	224.820 Tranquillon Peak (Lompoc)
	224.720 Frazier Mountain (Gorman)
	223.840 Quartzite Mountain (Victorville)
	224.000 Brush Peak (Santa Barbara)
	223.940 Raznow Peak (Thousand Oaks)
	224.820 Santiago Peak (Orange County)
	224.180 Toro Peak (Palm Springs)
	223.940 Lyons Peak (San Diego)
	224.880 Hayden Peak (Kingman)
	224.900 Mount Potosi (Las Vegas)

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			LAUNCH PHOTOGRAPHY

If Monday's launch creates a dusk light show, you might want to record
it on film. Doing so should be farily easy. All you'll need is the
following:

	35mm camera
	50, 100, or 135mm lens
	Film
	Cable release 
	Tripod

To capture the vehicle on the way up, use Fuji Superia 800 film and 4,
2, 1, and 1/2 second exposures at f/2.8.

To capture the aftermath (twisted contrail), use Fuji Superia 400 with
exposures of 16, 8, 4, and 2 seconds at f/2.8.