[Launch Alert] Monday Launch
Brian Webb
[email protected]
Thu, 11 Dec 2003 20:08:22 -0800
LAUNCH ALERT
Brian Webb
Ventura County, California
E-mail: [email protected]
Web Site: http://www.spacearchive.info
Reaching more than 2,350 e-mail addresses worldwide
2003 December 11 (Thursday) 20:05 PST
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BOOSTER VERIFICATION TEST LAUNCH
Vandenberg AFB Press Release
(Vandenberg AFB, Calif. - December 10) Team Vandenberg is scheduled to
launch Booster Verification Test-5 Monday* during a six-hour launch
window beginning at 10 a.m.
The test involves a three-stage booster configuration developed by
Lockheed Martin and is one of two boosters slated for use with the
Ground-based Midcourse Defense system. The GMD system is designed to
intercept and destroy long-range ballistic missiles. There is no
intercept planned for this booster test.
A second booster set for use with the GMD and built by Orbital
Sciences Corp. has had two successful flights from Vandenberg this
year.
* Monday, December 15th - Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CLASSIFIED PAYLOAD LAUNCHED
An Atlas IIas rocket carrying a classified payload lifted-off from
Vandenberg AFB at 02:02 PST on December 2nd. The vehicle subsequently
inserted the National Reconnaissance Office payload into orbit.
Several Launch Alert readers witnessed the launch and their
observations are printed below. The locales given are the observers'
viewing locations - all of which are in California. The original
reports were revised and reformatted to improve readability.
Dennis Bishop
Rosamond
"I left my trailer at 1:54 AM and had just reached the far side of
20th St West (Rosamond) with my camera and tripod when I saw the bird
clear the westside hills. I tracked and tried taking time photos of it
as long as I could see it. Sometime about 8 mins into the flight, it
was swolled up by the sky glow dome of Los Angeles.
I could tell just when the SRB's where kicked away and when the
booster was released too.
An awesome launch."
Stu Huston
Newport Beach
"Despite (or perhaps because of) a low haze that obscured the lights
of Los Angeles and Palos Verdes, my wife and I observed the launch of
AC164 from the beach at Newport Beach, CA.
We first saw the vehicle as a red spot very low to the horizon and
observed the burnout of the solid boosters, and shutdown of the
booster and sustainer stages. Due to the viewing angle, the sustainer
plume appeared very asymmetric - at first it appeared that the vehicle
motion was at an angle to the plume, and I thought the vehicle may
have gone out of control.
I lost track after the sustainer shutdown (just below Canis Major from
our viewing position).
Mike Johnston
Orange
"...Got up to watch the launch this morning (from Orange, CA). I had
not seen a "nighttime" launch.
I was very impressed. Beautiful. Glad I got up."
Brian Lockett
Lompoc
"I was on Harris Grade Road north of Lompoc for the Atlas IIAS launch
this morning.
The slightly gibbous moon was setting in a clear sky while I drove to
Lompoc. It pointed straight down and was reflected in the Santa
Barbara Channel. I arrived at Harris Grade Road at 1:45 A.M., a little
more than fifteen minutes before the launch. The lights of Lompoc
illuminated a thin layer of medium-altitude clouds.
Powerful spotlights were directed at the Atlas IIAS rocket on the
launch pad, about 8 miles away. The shafts of light pointed over
Lompoc and down the Santa Ynez Valley.
The thin layer of clouds grew noticeably thicker in the minutes before
the launch.
Shortly before T-minus-zero two brief flashes of light accompanied the
ignition of the liquid fueled first stage. Right at zero the entire
valley was suddenly illuminated by the brilliant glow of the four
solid fuel boosters. At first the rocket rose slowly toward the cloud
deck. It lit up the Lompoc Valley like an arc welder.
The rocket's flame cast bright circle of light on the bottom of the
cloud deck. The circle of light grew larger as the rocket neared the
clouds. The rocket pierced the clouds, which swallowed up its light.
The circle of light on the base of the clouds shrank again as the
Atlas raced upward.
The long, bright yellow flame appeared through a few gaps in the
clouds as the first sound of the launch reached my position. Nothing
beats a solid fuel rocket for basso profundo! Whammety bammety! Pow!
Pow! Pow! Nobody remained asleep in Lompoc at 2:05 in the morning.
Another very high altitude cloud layer glowed brighter as the Atlas
ascended toward it. The rocket's yellow flame dimmed and turned orange
as the solid fuel boosters burned out. The liquid fueled core of the
rocket was only dimly visible through the clouds as the sound of the
rocket climbed into the sky behind it, gradually fading away like
distant thunder."
Ken Manatt
Tujunga
"Launch observed from Tujunga CA N34.24225 W118.2823 (ca. 130mi):
The launch was plainly visible with the naked eye from Tujunga. I
spotted it as it cleared a small hill in front of my viewing position.
It was visible until shortly before ca. 02:10 PST when it seemed to
turn with the plume facing me and or engine cutoff. There seemed to be
a brief blink before it faded from view almost due south from my
position.
After initial acquisition I followed it with 8x hand held binoculars.
It burned with a very yellow flame and the expansion plume was plainly
visible. The grey plume appeared initially somewhat asymmetrical and
became more symmetrical as the flight progressed."
Carmrelita and Charles Morris
Fillmore
"This was a way too cool launch. Nice clear skies...rocket path going
right by us...and Carmelita got it on film and Charles got it on
video.
The video shows a very asymmetric plume behind the rocket with several
'puffs' during ascent. It looked like (from our position in our
backyard next to the observatory) a very fast moving comet skimming
the tops of tall bamboo trees.
Very nice launch under a beautiful night sky. Rocket went under Orion
and through Canis Major... a pretty cool sight!"
John Sanford
Springville
"I observed and videotaped the Atlas launch about an hour ago. It was
well seen from here in Springville. (W118 48.293,N36 13.450)
These timing are preliminary and just my interpretations from what I
saw on the tape.
First seen at 0205:13 PST (by my uncorrected watch-see note below)
Aquired in camera at 0205:21
Elongation of plume and booster trailing seen at 0206:31
Reduction in brightness of engine at 0207:11
Lost main engine (MECO?) at 0209:00
During the last minute or so of the burn I could see the leading edge
of the plume as quite a large balloon behind the vehicle.
At the beginning the rocket was very bright, about -4--4.5 magnitude.
During the main engine burn it was still about 3-4th magnitude and
fading slowly. The azimuth changed from about 250d to around 180d when
lost under Canis Major.
I used the camera NASA 'bought me' after I gave them the one that I
shot the Shuttle reentry with last February, I used the zoom all the
way out at 10x for all but the first few seconds of tape.
It's a Sony TRV-80, Digital Mini format. I used Nightshot 1, which
removes the IR blocking filter but has the normal frame rate of 30
fps. Time code is recorded on the tape (-51 sec. from my watch - will
do a watch correction to get final accurate timings tomorrow)..."
"...I did compare my watch with my "atomic" clock (WWV controlled
actually), and found it running 20 seconds fast. So if we take 20
seconds from the times in my observation, they should be pretty
accurate."
Skywise
Stanton
"Just observed the Atlas 2AS launch on time from Vandenberg from my
location in Stanton, Orange County, CA. (I'm with a couple hundred
feet of exactly -118.0 32.8).
Having observed several Minuteman launches I was caught a little
off guard in that the the vehicle rose above my horizon just north
of due west as opposed to the north-west I was used to. Obviously
due to it's intended orbit as opposed to heading off to Kwajalein.
I caught it in plenty of time to observe the first stage glowing
a bright reddish orange with no plume. The light faded for a second
and there was a puff of white. By this time I was observing with
my 7x35's. I could easily see the first stage fall away as the
second stage lit.
The second stage was the same bright red orange, almost like a
signal flare. However, a very white exhaust plume soon developed.
Through binocs the plume appeared to be composed of smaller puffs
that could be seen moving down through the plume as it widened.
Naked eye the plume appeared a little larger that the moon.
The whole affair still had a tremendous forward motion as it
moved just south of Orion.
One thing I noticed about the plume was it appeared to be 'directed'
somewhat downward relative to the rockets line of travel. Probably
just an artifact of the angle of observation.
I continued following the rocket both 1x and with binocs until I
lost it when the second stage cut off. This was almost due south
of me in the south-western corner of Canis Major.
Definitely worth waiting up till 2am for!!!!"
David Thomas
Palos Verdes Peninsula
"I observed the Atlas II launch from a hill on the Palos Verdes
peninsula. The sky was very clear and very dark towards the west over
the ocean.
I immediately saw the bright orange flame of the rocket rising from
very low in the northwest. I was looking through a spotting scope
while my daughter had the binoculars. I was hoping to glimpse the SRB
jettison but we didn't see anything falling from the rocket.
I did see several distinct changes in the flame, early in the flight,
that seemed to be timed with the SRB transitions. It was especially
impressive seeing the rocket coming towards us and then flying
relatively close by. It was, at one point, traveling at least three to
four degrees per second across the sky. During that time, the flame
looked to be at least two moon widths in length.
A couple minutes later it looked like a very fast jet leaving an
ominous contrail behind it and then it flashed and disappeared. This
was very similar to the first rocket I saw from my home in Long Beach
several years ago but, this time, the sky was much darker and the
rocket was much closer.
By far, this was the best remote viewing to date."
Todd Walker
North Vandenberg
"As we came up over the hill on the North side of Vandenberg, we
immediately spotted the last of the Atlas 2's standing majestically on
its pad, awash in brilliant flood lights. We were close enough to be
able to see steam being released from near the top and bottom of the
rocket that drifted east stretching all the way to the retracted
mobile service tower.
We parked just below one of the tracking cameras on a hill near the
entrance to Vandenberg to watch the launch. We were lucky to be able
to hear the official countdown coming from the base command radio near
the camera.
At 'One', a bright purple flame is seen beneath the Atlas followed a
second later by an incredibly bright ball of flame created from the 2
ground-lit boosters and main engine ignitions. As the rocket slowly
climbed from the pad, the entire valley began to light up as if the
sun was rapidly rising.
Just as the Atlas pierced some thin clouds, the thunderous sound
started the invasion of our senses that lasted for 2 or 3 minutes.
The rocket re-appeared above the cloud just after the air-lit boosters
ignited and I could see the ground-lit boosters tumbling away several
moments later.
We saw the separation poof followed by the next stage burn for some
time and then it disappeared."
Ed Williams
Palm Springs
"Was able to view my first launch from Palm Springs. I had never
looked before and almost missed this one as I was watching the wrong
part of the sky but I was able to very clearly see the rocket as it
burned its way skyward with what looked like a V shaped contrail
visible. Did not last long but next time I will know what direction to
look at am sure will catch more..."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
30TH ANNIVERSARY
Next Monday marks an anniversary of sorts. It will be 30 years ago
that I witnessed my first Vandenberg AFB missile launch from on-base.
I was a junior in high school and fortunate enough to be granted
access to the base as a reporter. The vehicle was a Delta rocket
carrying NASA's Atmospheric Explorer C.
My recollection is a bit sketchy now, but I can still remember some
of the details. Also present at the press site were Ernie Underhay
and Phil Wershba. The NASA public affairs officer was Walt Dundon, a
former actor from radio's golden age.
Back in 1973 we were only 8,000 feet from the pad. Lift-off
occurred at night and I watched the vehicle climb into the night sky.
If my memory is correct, the Delta's shock wave punched a rapidly
expanding hole in a very thin layer of high altitude clouds. The
vehicle continued to climb and eventually disappeared.
The night of December 15, 1973 is a night I'll never forget.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GLOSSARY
7x35 Binoculars
AC164 Atlas-Centaur 164
ca. Approximately
Canis Major A constellation
d Degrees
fps Frames per second
GMD The Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system designed to
destroy missiles in space during the middle
(midcourse) portion of their trajectory.
IR Infra-red
MECO Main engine cutoff
mins Minutes
N North latitude
PST Pacific Standard Time
sec. Second
SRB Solid Rocket Booster
W West longitude
x Magnification