[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule

Fri Jul 30 08:52:06 EDT 2004

                             LAUNCH ALERT

			           Brian Webb
		         Ventura County, California
		        E-mail: kd6nrp at earthlink.net
	         Web Site: http://www.spacearchive.info

				               2004 July 30 (Friday) 05:42 PDT
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		       VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
			       As of 2004 July 29

		    Launch
		  Time/Window
  Date	   (PST/PDT)		 Vehicle		Pad/Silo
--------	---------------		----------		--------

SEP		To be announced		Minuteman III	---
ICBM test launch (non-orbital). Payload is one or more unarmed
warheads (probably Mk-12). Impact area is in the Reagan Test Site at
Kwajalein in the central Pacific. Glory Trip 186?

SEP?		10:00-13:00			Falcon I		SLC-3W
Payload is the Naval Research Laboratory's TacSat-1 satellite. The
launch window is fixed and does not change if the launch date changes.

OCT 18	Unknown			Pegasus XL		Offshore
Payload is DART satellite

NOV 9		08:00-10:00			Minotaur		SLC-8
Payload is XSS-11 satellite

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	         Southern California Astronomical Events
			         for 2004 August

			  Time
  Date		(PST/PDT)				Event
--------		---------		-----------------------------

AUG 3			01:44-02:18		Lunar Occultation
The Moon occults (passes in front of) the +4.4 magnitude star psi 2
Aquarii. The star disappears at 01:44 and reappears at 02:18. Time
computed for downtown Los Angeles and will vary depending on your
location

AUG 12		00:00-04:40		Perseid Meteor Shower
Observers in dark locations should see several meteors
per hour.
http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/perseids.html

AUG 13		02:00			Lunar Conjunction
The Moon passes 5° north of Saturn.

AUG 14-15		---			Dark Sky Weekend
Best time this month to observe faint objects. Amateur astronomers
will hold observing sessions at dark sites

AUG 15		18:24			New Moon
Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun and is invisible. Moon rises
at sunrise and sets at sunset.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.html

AUG 17		12:00			Venus Western Elongation
Venus attains its greatest angular separation from the Sun and is
visible in the east at dawn

AUG 23		03:12			First Quarter Moon
Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.html

AUG 23		14:00			Mercury Inferior Conjunction
Mercury passes between the Earth and the Sun and is lost in the Sun's
glare

AUG 27		12:00			Uranus Opposition
Uranus is opposite the Sun with respect to Earth and rises at sunset

AUG 29		19:22			Full Moon
Moon rises at sunset and sets at sunrise and is visible all night.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.html

AUG 31		18:00			Planetary Conjunction
Venus and Saturn are 1.9° apart

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                    MESSENGER VIEWING OPPORTUNITY

Preparations are under way at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for
the launch of NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft to the planet Mercury. A
Delta II booster carrying the probe is scheduled to lift-off on August
1 at 23:16:11 PDT (August 2 at 06:16:11 UTC), the start of a 12-second
launch window.

MESSENGER team member and amateur astronomer David Dunham reports that
the spacecraft should be bright enough to see with optical assistance
immediately after the Delta II's third stage fires and sends the craft
on its way to Mercury.

"The injection into its heliocentric orbit, performed with the Delta
rocket 3rd stage, will be in daylight N.W. of Australia, but the
spacecraft will then climb rapidly in height and head towards Hawaii.
It will raise almost straight up over Hawaii, and then the Earth's
rotation will catch up, moving the ground track west from there, over
Japan, Asia, Europe, etc., gaining height and becoming fainter. But
while over Hawaii, it will be relatively close in a dark sky, well
placed for optical observation from Hawaii and western North America
... I think it will be 7th or 8th mag. at this part of the trajectory,
around 8h UT of August 2 (the geometry will be similar, with similar
timing, for the other launch dates). It will be rather fainter as it
rises for other locations, but maybe still 9th or 10th mag., for Japan
and Asia, maybe 11th mag. for Europe."

Dunham said that observers can find out where to look for MESSENGER
for their location using JPL's Horizons web site at

  http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eph

He added "You should start the calculations at 7:10 UT of Aug. 2; any
earlier and you will get an error message because the spacecraft
trajectory file starts shortly after the expected separation from the
spent 3rd stage rocket (you might see it, too, nearby) sometime during
7:09 UT. You can check the options that suppress output when the Sun
is above the horizon and the spacecraft is below it."

For MESSENGER countdown and launch status, go to:

  http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d307/status.html

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