[Launch Alert] Launch Today

[Brian Webb]

	     ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
 				  
			           Brian Webb
		        Ventura County, California
		       E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net
	      Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp

	    Reaching more than 2,020 e-mail addresses worldwide
 				       
				             2003 June 26 (Thursday) 06:12 PDT
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		           PEGASUS LAUNCH TODAY

Today's planned airborne launch of a Pegasus XL rocket carrying the
OrbView 3 satellite appears to be on schedule.

The L-1011 will depart Vandenberg AFB at about 10:50 PDT, make a
right turn and fly up the coast. The jumbo jet will later make two
right turns and begin heading south.

When the L-1011 arrives at 36.000 north/123.000 west (74 miles
southwest of Monterey), the Pegasus will be released. Five seconds
later the rocket's first stage motor will ignite and the booster
will begin to climb. If all goes well, OrbView 3 will be placed in a
near polar orbit.

If you're interested in following the launch, go to the following
Web sites:

   http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/orbview3/status.html

   http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/ov3_central.html

A few of you are interested in trying to observe the launch. If you
don't have a GPS set handy, use the following procedure to determine
where to look:

1. Determine the coordinates of your observing location. Go to:

   http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnis/web_query.gnis_web_query_form

2. Calculate the bearing and distance to the launch point from your
   observing site. Go to:

   http://williams.best.vwh.net/gccalc.htm

3. Go to "Compute true course and distance between points".

4. Enter your location's coordinates the Lat1 and Lon1 fields.

5. Enter the launch point coordinates (36.000 or 36 00 00 north and
   123.000 or 123 00 00 west) in the Lat2 and Lon2 fields.

6. Press Compute.

7. Read the bearing (azimuth) to the launch point from the Course 1-2
   field. The range appears in the Distance field. Note that distance
   is given in nautical miles by default.