[Launch Alert] Delta IV Launch Follow-Up

Wed Nov 8 18:36:27 EST 2006

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

				          2006 Novmber 8 (Wednesday) 15:33 PST
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                 DELTA IV/DMSP F-17 LAUNCH FOLLOW-UP

Several days have passed since last Saturday's Delta IV/DMSP F-17
launch from Vandenberg AFB and it is probably a good time for a post-
launch follow-up.

Liftoff occurred at dawn when the sky was relatively bright for
most observers. The Delta IV uses liquid fuel engines. In most cases
liquid fuel engines produce a dimmer flame than their solid fuel
counterparts.

However, the Delta's flame was surprisingly bright for a liquid engine
and the launch was seen over a wide area (see the launch observations
below).

The Delta's payload was a DMSP military weather satellite, the latest
in a family of spacecraft with an interesting history. The existence
of the DMSP program was declassified in 1973 and the reasons for
program's creation were officially revealed only within the past few
years. For a detailed history of the program, point your browser to
www.aero.org/publications/crosslink/winter2005/02.html.

An audio report on the DMSP F-17 launch, DMSP program history, and how
DMSP data is used was broadcast last week. The report is available on
my web site at www.spacearchive.info/delta-iv-dmsp-f-17.mp3

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                         LAUNCH OBSERVATIONS

The following is a listing of observations of last Saturday's Delta IV
rocket launch. The information is organized by observer and the
location from which he or she saw the event.

Steve Ball
Lompoc, California

"It was spectacular from my back yard in Lompoc (Mission Hills). The
sky was clear and there were stars visible...it was a beautiful
morning. I made a very amateurish recording of the launch but my
camcorder died after the first playback....Murphy at work I guess. At
any rate, it was one of the best looking launches we've had, and I
noticed this launch rattled my house a lot harder than the last Delta
IV. I haven't studied it but I wonder if this Delta IV was using the
same boosters, etc as the last one, because this time I never saw the
boosters separate and fall back like they usually do. It could have
been because I was spending so much time fooling around with the
stupid camcorder and I may have missed it.....I only know enough about
it to be dangerous."

Eric Behnke
Simi Valley, California

"Clear sky, moderate breeze over Simi Valley allowed for good
observation. Bright rocket engine observed with white exhaust trail
until about 10-15 deg over horizon. Single white cloud (stage
separation?) left an interesting "X" shaped cloud. About 30 seconds
after, the upper atmosphere spectacular expansive nozzle shower
pattern was seen. No audible effects of rocket due to wind."

Gary Dalton
Jalama Beach, Santa Barbara County, California

Intital report:

"Was able to park on a turn-out on Jalama Rd. a few hundred yards
above Jalama Beach and see the launch from SLC-6 in perfect
conditions. Rumor was that the Highway Patrol was going to close the
road and that the AF was to have the camp area evacuated. Not so.

Funny thing was, most of the campers at Jalama beach were there to
surf or get sleep and seemed to have no knowledge of what was about to
happen."

Follow-up report:

"There were a few very small remnants of fog surrounding the hillside
just above the SLC-6 area at 5:52am. Otherwise, there was nothing but
clear sky between us and the pad. One minute later everything started
to change. AT T +0-3 seconds the sky lit up all around SLC-6 with a
reddish and white flare, and the sound followed about 2-3 seconds
later. The rocket's roar was loud enough to shake the ground for about
15 to 20 seconds. It was an impressive dislpay of sight and sound.
We essentially only missed about 5-8 seconds of initial lift-off due
to the small hill obscuring the pad from our view. As the Delta IV
climbed, the color of the flame was a distinct grapefruit/reddish
color, about 100 to 150 feet long. This remained throughout the entire
first stage burn. We were not able to make out the actual shape or
size of the Delta IV because in the morning light, and from our
vantage point, the flame was dominant.
Our vantage point gave the impression that we were directly under the
flight path, to the point that when stage separation occurred, it
appeared that we were looking right into the tail end of the vehicle.
A few minutes later we noticed two pieces of the payload housing which
had separated appearing to follow along with the sattelite as if they
were escorting the payload into orbit. The two objects along with the
payload appeared to form a triangle, all moving along together at the
same velocity.

Our 7x35 low powered binoculars allowed us to follow the launch for
about 10 to 12 minutes."

John Hardin
Santa Paula, California

"My wife and I along with our good friend, Reg, watched the launch from
Santa Paula Airport in Santa Paula, Ca this morning. We could see very
well from here as the sky was very clear. It appeared to have a trail
for a short time and then you could just see it without any trail. In
about 1/2 of the time that we could still see it there appeared to be
a halo like burst around it. Was that a stage release? As it got
higher it looked like a star and just before it was no longer visible
to the naked eye I thought I could see what looked like sparks
emitting from it."

Colin Heatherly
Las Vegas, Nevada
Initial report:

"Saw it from Las Vegas. Wasn't much...just looked like a star
ascending. Could not see any trail. Next time tell them to launch just
after sunset. It's a lot better show at that time."

Follow-up report:

"The launch happened just 14 minutes prior to our sunrise, so it was
pretty light out and a little hazy. Like I said, all I could see was a
pin point of light ascending with no visible trail. Wasn't much of a
show, but I did get to see something."

Bruce Herrick
La Quinta, California
Initial report:

"I observed the vehicle in mid flight from La Quinta, CA (33.707 N,
116.292 W, h=23m). It appeared as a bright spot moving south in the
western sky, above the Santa Rosa Mountains. As expected it was a
difficult detection due to the transparent plume, lack of smoke, and
rapidly brightning sky. After detecting it visually, I tracked it for
about 15 seconds through an 8 X 50 mm finder scope on my 8", LX200
telescope (my intent was to collect high resolution video of a portion
of the launch phase). I looked away at a monitor and lost the booster
and was not able to reacquire it either visually or through the finder
scope."

Follow-up report:

"If I would have had my brain in gear I could have done much more,
some timings, etc. I would estimate the brightness when I first saw it
as Vm ~ -6, much brighter than Venus would have been at peak
brightness in the same location and with the same sky brightness. I
suspect one reason that I lost sight of it was that the brightness
changed as it went from first to second stage."

Adrian Jarret
Thousand Oaks, California

"Just about woke in time to see the launch from T.O.

Just pre dawn, there were about 2 stars still visable, it rose out of
the west with a very bright flame. Not much vapor, one vapor cloud
left high in the SW that spread into a con trail.

There was a brief 'plume' effect as the rocket continued south west,
too high an altitude to see a staging that clearly, and the plume
propageted outwards too fast to be a real rocket plume. Maybe this was
a shock wave as the vehicle went through a high altitude cloud layer.

Disappered off to the south-east still buring, still no trail. It
looked like one long, nice, clean burn."

Bob Matthews
Thousand Oaks, California

"I watched from my home in Thousand Oaks; the launch was visible for
about 5 minutes until out of range. The Delta appeared to pass through
a high altitude moisture patch about 3 minutes in when a patch of sky
lit up misty white, but that was only a few seconds in duration. A
minute or two later, a somewhat larger patch of sky lit up swirly
white back towards the earlier path, perhaps around the t+90 seconds
region. That patch lasted about a minute before dissipating. Both were
too small from my distance to produce decent photos, as was the launch
itself, as the exhaust plume was only distinct for the first 30
seconds or so and not too bright."

Peter Marx
Nipomo, California

"We had perfect cloudless views all the way to what appeared to be an
upper stage separation or perhaps payload separation; at that point
there was two light sources visible, slowly becoming more separated
from each other. I don't know if there are ever two ignition sources
on the rocket at the same time or if one of these was reflected light.

I read a note about a "fuel discard burn" or some such thing, designed
to destroy unused fuel on the main rocket after the payload is
released, but I gather that didn't happen until 10 minutes into the
flight; I don't think my observation was that late in the game,
although it may have been."

Diane Meyers
Penn Valley, California

"I live in Penn Valley (an hour north of Sacramento, near Grass
Valley) and could watch it with the naked eye out of my bedroom window
in the Northeast sky. It became visible here about 2 minutes after I
saw it launch on the web site. It was visible for about five minutes."

Nils Nehrenheim
San Pedro, California

"Saw the rocket from go up from San Pedro. Only saw a small light
almost looking like an airplane going straight up, much slower than I
had anticipated (much slower than the minuteman launch). Saw with
binoculars the first stage burn off. Cloud/fog prevent seeing much
detail of the entire launch."

Brian Neuschwander
Observing from Capitola, California

"I saw this morning's launch from Capitola, CA on the north side of
Monterey Bay. The very large engine flame was very clearly visible as
the rocket rose above the Ventana Mountains south east of Monterey.
The flight was visible with the naked eye for a full seven minutes.
The initial ascent left a faint white signature. First state
separation created a dramatic white bloom which quickly disappeared. I
was very surprised at how high and how westerly this flight was.
Usually I can only see a flight for a few seconds and then it
disappears south about 5-10 degrees above the horizon. This flight
went about 35 degrees up and about 30 degrees to the west as observed
from my position. Certainly this was the most dramatic launch since
the dusk flights of Minuteman a few years ago."

Andy Randrup
Morro Bay, California

"The weather (fog) broke around 4 am, and I was able to see it
perfectly. My impressions:

I just watched a rocket launch (Delta IV Heavy, big one!) from
Vandenberg in the early sky, perfectly timed to show well in the
twilight (it was just light enough so there were only two stars left
out) and yet still morning enough to hit the sunlight as it made stage
separation/ignition as it curved out over Morro Rock and the Pacific,
making a beautiful clawed flare about five times the diameter of the
full moon in a sudden blue-white burst as the liquid oxygen went off
and steering nozzles blew across the spent first stage boosters. Even
after the craft left the atmosphere and crossed into true space (thus
no longer leaving a vapor trail) I could see the canisters following
below as they slowly began their descent into the ocean to fall
harmlessly onto the whales and fisherman of the Maldives, glittering
in the newborn day. The huge size of this Beast made its ascent slow
and easy to track, as opposed to the MinuteMan IIIs and their ilk,
that zip toward our enemies, real and imagined, at unthinkable speeds,
and are gone in less than two minutes. This launch was visible for at
least six minutes, the second stage ignition not even taking place
until 4:34 and the boosters dropping after the five minute mark. As
the sun continued to rise, the trail faded, and by the time the lower
section (first stage smoke) was back lit, it had dissipated for the
most part, with only a strange blue-white "puff" marking the point
where the second stage had ignited on its way out of the atmosphere. A
faint rumbling like distant thunder was heard for about three minutes,
but not until after the craft was out of sight. Not surprising,
considering the immense distance from our home. The Launch Pad itself
is over 80 miles as the crow flies, and the rocket went almost due
South as soon as it became airborne."

John Sanford
Springville, California

"Very cool launch! That oxy/hydrogen mixture really is the way for
high energy! Got good video with Sony Nightshot. The neatest thing is
I was looking visually and didn't pick it up but when I glanced at the
camcorder screen there was a bright pinpoint of light! Sure enough
within a few seconds I did see it visually. There was a faint trail
going down into the haze which was more visible in the IR. I followed
it with the 10x Zeiss lens until first stage burnout and ignition of
the second stage. Then watched the flame become a tiny pinpoint and at
that point I ran out of tape. At that time I noticed the bright patch
of vapor trail (in the sun) that was by far the brightest part of the
trail and remained visible for several minutes. Too bad I couldn't
record it."

Michael Schweit
Northridge, California

"The only observation I have is it amazes me how long it takes for me
to see the missile from Northridge, CA. It usually takes about 45
seconds from liftoff until we see it. MECO was easy to observe as a
white, clear radial puff."

Brian Webb
Ventura County, California

The following account was originally posted to the See-Sat Internet
newsgroup:

"I observed the Delta IV/DMSP F-17 launch this morning from Vandenberg
AFB. My site was a hill in Ventura County, California* located about
95 statute miles east-southeast of the launch site.

The sky was clear, but not very dark due to the approaching sunrise. I
didn't expect the launch to occur today because of the pessimistic
launch weather forecast issued yesterday. At about 05:53 PST (13:53
UTC) one of the other observers said "There it is." Sure enough, there
was a distant, but faily bright spot of light on the horizon.

Although official sources said this vehicle had no solid starp-on
motors, it left a fairly thick, white trail for about 20 seconds that
was similar to solid motor exhaust.

After the trail disappeared, the vehicle continued to climb and I was
surprised how bright it was. At about T+45 seconds the Delta IV was
clearly much brighter than Venus when that planet is at its brightest.
The vehicle's flame was at least magnitude -6 and more likely -8
(possibly even brighter). Although the first stage engine burns liquid
fuel and oxidizer, it produced a flame as bright as a solid fuel
missile like a Peacekeeper. In addition to the flame's brightness, I
was also impressed by its orange color (hydrogen produces an orange
flame, so this is likely due to the Delta IV's hydrogen fuel).

The vehicle continued to cross the sky towards the south. At about
T+60 seconds there was a hint of a very tenuous exhaust plume behind
the Delta IV.

Several seconds later, a very brief, bright, wedge-shaped exhaust
plume appeared. The plume was white in color and lasted no more than
2 or 3 seconds. This was probably caused by stage 1/stage 2 staging.

The Delta grew fainter, but it still easily visible against the
semi-bright sky background. About that time, I took a photo that shows
the Delta passing near the star Sirius. The rocket was about one full
magnitude magnitude fainter than Sirius.

As expected, the Delta IV launch produced an odd, luminous white
cloud. I saw such a cloud during the last June's Delta IV launch and
thought it was created by staging. However, June's cloud was high in
the south but this morning's cloud was in the west (a totally
different part of the sky than I had anticipated).

At no time did the flame from this morning's Delta IV launch have a
shape. It resembled a compact (but not star-like), bright blob.

Four other observers showed up this morning to observe the launch. I
don't recall having met any of them before.

* This viewing site is located at 34° 17' 57" (34.29917°) N, 118° 51'
25" (118.85694°) W, elevation: 807 ft (246 M)."

Joe Westerberg
Joshua Tree National Park, California

"We observed the launch clearly from Joshua Tree National Park... but
we were a little disappointed. The rocket appeared only as a white
light (like the space station when it goes over) with no tail and was
not back lit by the sun. We saw one of the stage separations... with
some very light diffusion but that quickly dissipated. Then the rocket
quickly disappeared. Shortly after it disappeared a small splotch of
unspent fuel began to glow but it too disappeared quickly. I did take
a couple of pictures of it but have not yet got them developed... but
am not anticipating much."

Mike White
El Segundo, California

"I Observed the Launch from Dotwiller State Beach in El Segundo CA.
and was using a pair of Fujinon 7 X 50 Binoculars. This particular
Launch was anticlimactic for me from my vantage point. There appeared
to be overcast or fog towards Malibu, somewhat obstructing the view in
that direction. When I first observed it over the fog-haze or overcast
in that direction it looked like a Air Planes landing lights coming
from the direction of Malibu so as it was at the right time I put up
my Binoculars to the light and followed it with them. As it appeared
to fly southwestwardly the light got somewhat brighter till the first
stage separation then it got really brighter at that point and the
light appeared much larger at that time. As I tract it downrange there
appeared to be multiple pin points of lights in a straight line as it
was getting farther away downrange. The only lasting evidence in the
sky was a bright very short contrail for a few minutes ware the first
stage separation occurred. There was no long contrail as that's what I
was hopping to see. I did not see the rocket itself only the light.
Next Launch I will go further up the coast to get closer and to get a
better vantage point."

William Wise
North Las Vegas, Nevada

"I am in North Las Vegas and had a pretty good view of this mornings
launch. Although I could not see a contrail I did see the actual flame
of the rocket that looked like a very bright star rising rapidily into
the sky. I had a good view for about 45 seconds before it faded off
into the distance. I took some pics but they didn't turn out."

Steven Zwalick
San Luis Obispo, California

"My only interesting observation was the single, high altitude cloud
that formed nearly instantly following the upper atmosphere exit. Very
interesting."

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