[Launch Alert] Stardust Reentry Observations

Sun Jan 22 22:34:02 EST 2006

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

				            2006 January 22 (Sunday) 19:28 PST
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                    STARDUST REENTRY OBSERVATIONS

In response to my request for Stardust reentry observations, I
received the following reports from Gary Baker and Rick Baldridge.

Gary Baker:

"FYI, I viewed the Stardust reentry in cloud-free skies from
Roseville, CA (northeast of Sacramento), no closer than 180 miles from
the reentry ground track. The reentry was on time and its brightness
was impressive given its distance. It was at least as bright as mag -2
(Jupiter), and probably approached -4 (Venus). Its apparent brightness
peaked when the SRC was closest to my location (within 10 seconds of
acquisition), and then held roughly constant as the SRC ventured
further east and lower in my sky. It first appeared pure white, and
then took on a subtle reddish hue that it kept until finally fading
out rapidly at about 2 deg elevation, just above the Sierra Nevada. It
was really moving -- I've seen Shuttle reentries, and the SRC was very
obviously moving faster than the Shuttle returning from LEO. The SRC
appeared very much like a natural meteoric fireball."

Rick Baldridge:

"Yeah, we saw it. William Phelps, Brian Day and I ended up NE of Red
Bluff in the foothills about 880ft elevation on Highway 36 that goes
to Lassen (N40.268, W122.130). I screwed up on the timing by one
minute (too tired and misread the plot I had), so we weren't as
prepared as we would have liked to have been. If Brian hadn't seen
Stardust in the northeast sky and yelled to us, I think all three of
us would have missed it. From our location, it should have first
become visible in Perseus and gone just slightly under Polaris as it
headed toward the east. William and I were looking west of Polaris
when Brian spotted it well to the east of us. We saw it for maybe 25
seconds, and video taped it for much less than that. I sent a
preliminary report to Peter Jenniskens (Ames) via the Stardust
website giving our coordinates, equipment and basic results.

It was moving real fast -- about twice as fast as a Shuttle re-entry
but two to three times slower than a typical meteor. It was definitely
red-orange but showed little or no plasma wake at that point. It did
get fairly bright (about zero-magnitude - Saturn's brightness) and was
increasing in intensity as it descended toward Lassen Peak as viewed
from our location. It all happened so fast that we all said, "What the
__ ?  Was that it?" simply because we had driven 5 hours to get out in
the middle of nowhere and it was over in 30 seconds, plus we still had
another 5 hours to drive back to the Bay Area. But we knew that. I'm
glad we saw it. Seeing the fastest re-entry of the man-made object WAS
certainly something, and I'm happy for NASA that it landed
successfully.

The videos I took came out pretty well. Will try to post them soon.
The photos so far are disappointing. One of mine BARELY shows a streak
as the trail heads into the horizon near Mt. Lassen. Haven't seen
Brian's shot yet or William's stuff, but William did get a video and
Brian mentioned last night that one of his photos does barely show the
streak.

Kevin went out on the tarmac at Moffett (NASA/Ames) to get a good
northern horizon but he didn't see anything naked-eye. My brother
Brian was in Fort Bragg but I haven't spoken to him yet to find out
whether he saw it or not.

Some stuff is slowly being posted at:

http://dgilbert3.home.mindspring.com/stardust.htm

http://reentry.arc.nasa.gov/index.html

http://reentry.arc.nasa.gov/firstreactions.html"

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                         SUBMARINE LAUNCHES

I also recently requested historical information on ballistic missile
launches from submarines off the West Coast. Launch observations
regarding a dusk launch several years ago were received from several
Launch Alert readers.

Steve Ball:

"I have a bit of info about that Trident launch (from a sub) which
took place a few years ago, somewhere off VAFB.

I belonged to the Vandenberg Amateur Astronomical Society at the time,
and we where having our monthly star party on Figueroa Mountain the
night of that launch.  Most of our club members worked at VAFB, both
military and civilian, and they all had a real good handle on what
missile was launching from what pad, etc., but when that missile
launched it took every one of them by complete surprise. We all
grabbed our cameras and scopes and watched for a very long time as the
missile climbed out and went downrange...we had a great view...we
could see spin motors firing, etc. It was a very exciting event and
everybody was cheering and shouting...it was GREAT.  However, most of
the discussion for the rest of the night between these long time
missile guys was trying to figure out what missile that was, since
nobody on base was scheduled to launch anything. We found out the next
day that it was from a Trident submarine which was "using the range"
....the launch had obviously been highly classified. Given the
heightened state of security these days I doubt if the public will
ever know about one of these launches in advance....the Navy is not
likely to reveal the position of an operational ballistic missile
submarine.

One thing for sure...it made for a very interesting star party, and
we're still talking about it all these years later!"

Ball later added:

"We had a bunch of guests at the star party that night, and of course
we tried to tell them we had planned the whole thing just for them.
Funny, but I don't think they believed us."

"I forgot to say that you were right...the launch occurred at dusk,
and it must have been a Saturday night because that was our usual star
party night."

Wiley Sanders:

"I saw an offshore ballistic missile launch from Berkeley in the
winter or spring of 1988. Sorry I don't have the date. I had just
moved to California and from January to May 1988, I had a spectacular
pad in the Berkeley hills with a panoramic view from the Santa Cruz
Mountains to Mount Tam. I recall looking out the window just after
sunset and seeing what first appeared to be an aircraft on fire at a
high altitude. The object began moving much faster, and I began to see
a expanding gas cloud behind instead of a contrail, and it was obvious
this was a missile launch. I've subsequently seen exhaust clouds from
several VAFB launches up here but this missile was obviously launched
from a position further north. There was some press coverage at the
time since the event was widely seen all over the Bay Area. IIRC the
target was in the S Pacific. Quite a sight."

Keith Cox:

"I do remember a visible launch from the Sub off the California coast
- seems to me it was in 1987 or 1988 - my oldest daughter was still a
baby.

I observed the launch from Clovis (Fresno) - and what struck me was
the angle of viewing from the Central Valley. Having observed numerous
launches from VAFB, I was used to the S/W viewing angle. The Sub
launch seemed to be directly WEST of me. (I later read that the launch
was off the coast near Big Sur/Monterey/Carmel.) With a near direct
westerly view - the launch and subsequent path of the missile SEEMED
to be coming TOWARD land - a rather errie sight. My wife at the time
commented "is it coming or going?" - and at first I couldn't answer. I
immediately scanned the horizon to see if there were any additional
"incomming" objects - there were not! After the missle gained some
altitude I was better able to see that it was going away from us. What
a relief..."

Regarding offshore Tomahawk missile launches from submarines, Randall
Clague replied:

"ERPS saw part of a Tomahawk flight from the Mojave Test Area on 10
Nov 2002. It flew less than a mile south of MTA. It was being escorted
by four F-14s, probably from VX-9 at Mugu. The interesting thing about
that flight is that we saw it just as we were wrapping up our own
flight ops, less than 30 minutes after our last launch. They must have
launched right after they got word from Joshua that we were done for
the day."

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3,2,1
BLASTOFF! VANDENBERG PREPS FOR ANOTHER YEAR OF FLAWLESS LAUNCHES
       By A1C Stephen Cadette, 30th Space Wing Public Affairs
         Reprinted from Air Force Space Command News Service

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – The 2006 launch schedule for
Vandenberg is looking to be the busiest in six years, with twice the
launches planned as last year, according to the 30th Space Wing Plans
office.

With almost as many different launch vehicles there are agencies which
execute the programs, this year’s launch schedule will demonstrate a
variety of missions.

“This will be another exciting launch year for Vandenberg,” said Col.
Jack Weinstein, 30th Space Wing commander. “We get to follow up the
flawless launch of the last Titan IV in 2005 by launching the first
evolved expendable launch vehicles, the Delta IV and Atlas V, from
Vandenberg in addition to the many other missions slated for this
year. We have the most exciting mission in the Department of Defense,
and no one does it better.”

One mission is the management of DoD space and missile testing. An
organization that carries out that mission is the 576th Flight Test
Squadron. A squadron with a heritage extending back to World War II,
its mission is to evaluate the nation’s intercontinental ballistic
missile force.

“We test all aspects of the ICBM weapon system through rigorous
software testing, simulated electronic launches conducted on the
fielded system, and operational test launches here at VAFB using
operational missiles (to) ultimately improve the ICBM force,” said Lt.
Col. Stephen Davis, 576th FLTS commander. “As a result, the tremendous
capability of our ICBM force is available at a moment’s notice
to
deter any potential adversaries.”

Five Minuteman III ICBM launches are scheduled this year, the first
for Feb. 15. The 576th will work with the other missile wings at
Minot AFB, N.D., Malmstrom AFB, Mont., and F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., to
complete these missions, Colonel Davis said.

“The first launch of the year will be a certification flight for the
Mk21 warhead, testing our ability to place the newer, safer and more
accurate reentry vehicle previously fielded on the Peacekeeper ICBM,
on the Minuteman III,” the colonel said. “We’re partnering with the
526th ICBM Systems Wing and Department of Energy to complete
certification for using the Mk21 warhead on the Minuteman III.”

Another of Vandenberg’s missions is the emplacement of polar-orbiting
satellites. Vandenberg is unique in that it is the only site the DoD
uses to launch payloads into polar orbit. Such satellites can predict
the weather, map the earth’s surface, relay reconnaissance information
and more.

Several familiar launch vehicles like the Delta II and Pegasus are in
the planning stages for the upcoming year. The Pegasus rocket,
Vandenberg’s second 2006 launch scheduled for Feb. 28, is carried to
40,000 feet by a Stargazer aircraft where it is released and launched
into low-earth orbit. The Pegasus successfully launched NASA’s
Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology, or DART, satellite
from Vandenberg April 15, 2005.

The 1st Air and Space Test Squadron performs mission management and
launch operations for small space launch vehicles like the Minotaur, a
low-cost four-stage space launch vehicle made from the first two
stages of Minuteman II and the upper stages from Orbital Suborbital’s
Taurus launch vehicle. The next Minotaur mission is scheduled to
launch the end of March.

In addition to the older technologies like the Pegasus and Minotaur,
Vandenberg is preparing for a paradigm shift to meet the next
generation of space launch needs with the Evolved Expendable Launch
Vehicle program.

“The boosters on Lockheed Martin’s Atlas V and the Boeing Delta IV
represent the latest in advanced launch technology,” said 1st Lt.
David Romero, 4th Space Launch Squadron. The EELVs from Vandenberg are
the only means for the nation to put medium or heavy payloads into
polar orbit. Vandenberg has plans to launch both Atlas V and Delta IV
vehicles in 2006. For an up-to-date launch schedule, go to
http://mocc. vandenberg.af.mil/launchsched.asp.

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			         WEB SITE UPDATE

A new page was added to my web site with information on how to
make a donation to cover expenses. The page is at:

http://www.spacearchive.info/donate.htm

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		    SYMBOLS, ACRONYMS, AND ABBREVIATIONS

Ames	NASA Ames Research Center
deg     Degrees
IIRC    If I remember correctly
Joshua  Joshua Control. The FAA airspace control authority in the
        region around Edwards AFB
LEO     Low Earth Orbit
N       North
NE      Northeast
S       South
S/W     Southwest
SRC     Sample Return Container
VAFB    Vandenberg AFB
VX-9    A flight test squadron at Point Mugu
W       West

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