[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule

Wed Oct 1 22:01:20 EDT 2008

                             LAUNCH ALERT

                              Brian Webb
                     Ventura County, California
                         kd6nrp at earthlink.net
                     http://www.spacearchive.info

                              2008 October 1 (Wednesday) 18:19 PDT
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                   VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
                         As of 2008 October

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

OCT 24         19:28                    Delta II        SLC-2W
Vehicle will launch the COSMO-SkyMed 3 earth observation satellite.

NOV            ~09:12                   Atlas V         SLC-3E
Payload is the DMSP F18 military weather satellite

DEC-JAN        To be announced          GBI             ---
Scenario calls for the launch of a mock warhead from the Kodiak Launch
Complex, Alaska followed by a Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) from
Vandenberg AFB. The DoD will announce the launch time several hours in
advance. Operation Name: FTG-05

JAN 15         To be announced          Taurus XL       576-E
Payload is the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) scientific satellite

FEB 4          To be announced          Delta II        SLC-2W
Payload is the NOAA N Prime environmental satellite

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                         ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS
                            2008 October
                Computed for Los Angeles, California

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

OCT 6         13:53             Mercury Inferior Conjunction
Mercury passes between the Earth and the Sun and is lost in the Sun's
glare.

OCT 7         02:04             First Quarter Moon
Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight

OCT 14        13:02             Full Moon
Moon rises at sunset, sets at sunrise, and is visible all night

OCT 21        04:55             Last Quarter Moon
Moon rises at midnight and sets at noon

OCT 22        02:34             Mercury Western Elongation
Mercury attains its greatest angular separation from the Sun and is
visible low in the east at dawn.

OCT 25-26     ---               Dark Sky Weekend
Best time this month to observe faint objects. Amateur astronomers may
hold observing sessions at dark sites

OCT 28        16:14             New Moon
Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun and is invisible. Moon rises
at sunrise and sets at sunset

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                     CHIMERA LAUNCH OBSERVATIONS

Several Launch Alert readers observed the September 23 Chimera missile
launch from Vandenberg AFB. Here are their observations.

                               Mark
                         Gustine, Calif.

"Watched the launch from my home in Gustine, CA. It was very short.
(about 20 seconds).

I noticed at around what I believe was the first to second stage their
was a flashing behind it. Was this part of what separated and
spinning?? It was still a good launch from my view.

If anyone is interested from my home they look like bright orbs.
Sometimes they have a tail."

                             Tony Lazar
                         San Carlos, Calif.

"I just had a spectacular view of the launch from my deck in San
Carlos, about 250 miles to the northwest.

I was not expecting to see it, given the time uncertainty, but was out
anyway with binoculars looking at stars when I noticed the bright
orange dot moving in the right direction. There was a bright gray
contrail with a big puff that I assume was a staging event. The rocket
appeared to go southwest and the burn was visible for at least two
minutes.

I estimate that the launch occurred a minute or two before midnight
Pacific time. Wish I had a low-light video camera - maybe next time!"

"One thing I forgot to mention - a very bright meteor crossed the
binocular field of view right behind the rocket at just about
midnight, give or take a few seconds. It was a jaw-dropping sight...
Others may have seen it too, if the parallax wasn't too great.
Southerly viewers may have seen it even closer to the rocket."

                          Craig Milo Rogers
                       Marina del Rey, Calif.

"It was a beautiful launch as viewed from Marina del Rey, even
though there were clouds that obscured the view at times. I believe I
saw a booster or first stage twinkle after separation."

                                Randy

"Well, that was disappointing. There are two kinds of launches from
Vandenberg.  Orbital, which go pretty much due south and are very
difficult to see from Pleasant Hill, (20 miles East of San Francisco)
because they don't get very high - and sub-orbital, which are easy.
Since this NFIRE launch was sub-orbital I figured it would be just
like any other Minuteman launch. Wrong! I spotted it at about 12:03.
Due South, just under Fomalhaut and about as bright.  However, it
wasn't climbing. I followed it with binos for 10-20 seconds when it
dimmed considerably. I then readjusted  my position and lost it
completely. I'd be interested in knowing the final destination of
tonight's launch. Somehow I don't think that it was headed for Kwaj."

                    Carmelita and Charles Morris
                              Fillmore

"We observed the launch from our backyard, with binoculars. It was
a very beautiful night sky with the Milky Way overhead and dark enough
to see the dust lanes in the Milky Way. We were outside, in our shorts
and t-shirts (60 degrees) at 11:30p. We used our binoculars to observe
the wonderful night sky, while we were waiting for the launch...we
observed Jupiter setting, Andromeda Galaxy almost overhead, the
beautiful Summer Triangle, the Pleiades rising, and a steady night
sky. We decided to go inside at midnight, because we were getting
cold. At approx. 11:58p. we saw the orange exhaust of the rocket
coming out of the trees. Nice white exhaust plume trailing the orange
rocket against a dark, starry sky. Pretty launch!  Watched it
disappear to the south west until 12:01a."

                              Lee Jones

"I went outside (backyard of house in residential neighborhood) at
23:50 and started watching the western horizon with eyeballs and
15x50IS binoculars. TLV's engine & exhaust plume popped up over the
tree line about 23:58 or 23:59. Soon after, there was a disturbance
(a big "puff") in the engine glow and smoke trail that I took to be
first state burnout and second stage ignition.

When I saw it, I called out that I had it in sight. My wife came out.
She was able to easily spot it with her naked eyes. That engine burned
out just before it went behind a big tree.

I scanned the southwest sky looking for the NFIRE satellite itself.
Instead, I spotted a rocket engine & exhaust plume. I assume this was
a third stage.  Vehicle was moving southwest in a much flatter
trajectory.  My wife could also easily see this engine plume.

(I never spotted the NFIRE satellite itself.)

Engine burned out and I could barely see a glowing spot (rocket
engine nozzle?) until I lost it behind another tree (I couldn't
walk to reposition myself while keeping the binoculars to my
eyes and it was way too dim to reacquire).

All 3(?) engine burns were yellow-orange flame. During first & second
stage burns, I could discern a white'ish-gray smoke trail using the
binoculars."

                            Wiley Sanders
                          Lafayette, Calif.

"Launch was visible from Lafayette, Contra Costa County, California,
but dimmer than previous Minuteman launches. The launch dimmed
completely as the first stage (?) burned out then reappeared a minute
later when the 3rd stage (?) lit."

                            Len Messinger
                          Lafayette, Calif.

"Viewed and photographed it from Northridge (digital quality was very
low)"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                          STRANGE SIGHTING

On Saturday, September 19th, observers in southern California reported
a flaming object crossing the sky. The Editor received the following
accounts of this event.

                              Jeff Hall

Hall sent the following report to Chris Peat, webmaster of the Heavens
Above web site. It is reprinted here with permission.

"Hi Chris-

I have recently stumbled across your site and have a recent experience
to share with you that maybe you have some answers to explain what I
saw.

"I was out at my cabin in the desert this last weekend [Sept. 19th] and
witnessed the most intense 'meteor' that I have ever seen. It was so
intense that my friends who witnessed it with me suspected that it was
some sort of manmade object re entering the atmosphere and burning up.
It reminded me of the footage of the space shuttle Columbia when it
burned up during re entry, so much so, that I turned on the radio half
expecting to hear a news update about losing the shuttle or even the
ISS...

Our position was Twentynine Palms, CA USA Lat: 34.25115 Long:
-116.11517 [from the coordinates that I gathered from your site]
Approximate time: 11pm
Direction:  West to East

As I walked out of my cabin, I saw a fireball already in motion coming
out of the West, appearing about 30 degrees above the horizon [when I
first saw it] and it traversed the sky to a little past overhead
directly to the East before finally burning up completely. We had seen
multiple falling stars all throughout the evening, but they all seemed
to be radiating from the East at about 70 degrees above the horizon
[sorry, I don't know the proper way to describe the actual
astronomical position  :D ] So it struck me as unusual that this one
was from the opposite direction.

It was approximately 11pm at the time I witnessed it and it moved
quite a bit slower than any meteor that I have ever seen. It literally
took approximately 6-9 seconds to burn up completely and traversed the
sky at the approximate speed that a low flying airliner would travel
to pass overhead. I actually yelled to my friends to come look at the
meteor and had a short conversation to convince them to come outside
while it was still in flight. They actually casually walked out
expecting it to be gone, but still saw it in flight.

It burned a very bright orange and seemed to explode 3 separate times
generating more particles which continued burning abnormally long as
well and the main piece continued intensifying in brightness until it
burned out completely at about 75-80 degrees above the eastern
horizon.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I was wondering if you have heard
anything about a large meteor or especially a manmade object burning
up on Friday night at or around that time.

                            Jeff Wallace

"I saw a very peculiar sight last Saturday night while we were camping
the Mojave Desert. I first saw it ~30deg above the western horizon as
a very bright orange/yellow (fireball). It proceeded almost directly
overhead for a couple minutes. As a complete Noobe to satellite
orbital mechanics I would say it traveled across the sky with about
the same speed as ISS fly over's. It was very bright with almost a
sparkle to it. It did not leave a visible trail, or were there any
signs of pieces dropping off as I suspect they should. This bright
object was followed within 3-5 minutes by two more objects with much
lower intensity. Although they were about the same orange/yellow
color. Do you know how I could confirm if this was a satellite reentry
or not? I tried doing some Google searches and only found a few sites
that tracked satellite reentries, both past and future predictions.
None of them had a date too close to this Sept 20,2008 date. Except
for one on Sept. 14, 2008 http://www.reentrynews.com/upcoming.html
Here are the sites I found:
http://www.satobs.org/re-entry.html
http://www.aero.org/capabilities/cords/reentries.html
http://www.space-track.org/perl/login.pl
Thank you for any suggestions or links you could provide."

Wallace later sent this clarifying information:

"It was right around 9:00PM. We were camping in Lucerne Valley Ca. At
an off road riding spot known as Cougar Buttes. I do not have the GPS
location. I guess I could figure them out with a map if that would
help. Really strange sighting for sure. So bright, without a trailing
tail or debris falling off. There were 30-40 other campers out there
with us so it was not the cocktail I was drinking at the time. I guess
I'll have to mark it down as one of those strange things we see in our
life time that we just can't explain."

----------------------------------------------------------------------