[Launch Alert] Resend of Launch Rescheduled

[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
 				       
						2003 January 12 (Sunday) 07:05 PST
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			LAUNCH CANCELLED

Saturday's launch of a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg AFB was
cancelled due to a ground equipment problem. The Delta is now
tentatively set to lift-off today (Sunday) at 16:45 PST, the start of
a 45-minute launch window. The Delta will place the ICESat and CHIPSat
satellites into orbit.

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			COUNTDOWN STATUS

The best source of countdown status for the Delta II/ICESat/CHIPSat
launch is the Spaceflight Now web site. Space journalist Justin Ray is
now providing current countdown status on a web page devoted to this
launch. Point your browser to:

	http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d294/status.html

Be sure to regularly hit the refresh button on your browser to see the
latest information.

Today's launch will be probably be carried on NASA TV (NTV). NTV is
broadcast on GE-2, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees
West longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical
and audio is monaural at 6.8 MHz.

Amateur (ham) radio operators will discuss today's launch and share
countdown status via the WB6OBB repeater. This machine is located
north of Santa Barbara on Broadcast Peak and has very wide coverage.
The repeater uses the following frequencies, offsets, and CTCSS tones:

Freq.						CTCSS
(MHz)			Offset		(Hz)
-------		------		-----
147.000		  +			131.8
224.900		  -			131.8
449.300		  -			131.8

There will be some sporadic launch discussion from 12:45 to 15:00.
Most launch-related traffic will occur once the Vandenberg Launch Net
is formally covened at 16:15 (T-30).

Since the launch may provide a dusk light show for observers in
Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, a very limited amount of countdown
status may be provided over the Condor system.

Condor is a network of linked ham radio repeaters in California and
adjoing areas. Because the repeaters are linked, a ham using one
repeater will be heard on all of the other repeaters in the system.
The Condor repeaters are as follows:

Freq.					CTCSS
(MHz)			Offset	(Hz)		Location
-------		------	-----		----------------
223.840		  -		156.7		Victorville
223.940		  -		141.3		San Diego
223.940		  -		156.7		Thousand Oaks
224.000		  -		156.7		Santa Barbara
224.180		  -		156.7		Palm Springs
224.640		  -		156.7		Lake Isabella
224.720		  -		156.7		Gorman
224.820		  -		141.3		Lompoc
224.820		  -		156.7		Orange County
224.880		  -		156.7		Kingman, AZ
224.900		  -		156.7		Fresno
224.900		  -		156.7		Las Vegas, NV
224.920		  -		156.7		San Luis Obispo*

* This repeater may be off the air or disconnected from the system.