[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule

Tue Sep 16 22:30:54 EDT 2008

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

                             2008 September 16 (Tuesday) 19:11 PDT
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2. Will the next launch be visible from my location?

   For information on viewing Vandenberg AFB rocket and missile launches,
   go to:

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

3. What would be a good place to view the next launch?

   Go to:

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4. Do you have any information on the upcoming <launch name> launch?

   The Vandenberg AFB launch schedule is published in Launch Alert
   twice per month. A more current launch schedule is available online
   at:

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

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                PUBLIC TO CATCH A GLIMPSE OF JUPITER
                     Westmont College News Release
                        http://www.westmont.edu

Westmont’s Carroll Observatory reopens for free public viewings
Friday, Sept. 19, at dusk. Weather permitting, stargazers will look
through the powerful Keck Telescope at Jupiter in the southern sky.

Thomas Whittemore, instructor of physics, says the moon will not be
visible until late Friday night, creating better viewing conditions
for deep space.

“We may also be able to see objects near the zenith such as the Ring
Nebula in Lyra,” he says. “This is the remnants of a dying star,
shedding its gaseous envelop into space. Similar to what will
eventually happen to our sun, but in about four or five billion
years.”

Whittemore says some globular clusters may be visible as the winter
Milky Way starts to move higher and higher into the evening sky.

The Carroll Observatory is open to the public every third Friday of
the month.

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                   VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
                       As of 2008 September 14

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

SEP 23-24     22:30-00:30         TLV            ---
Target Launch Vehicle. Launch will be scheduled to coincide with a
pass of the NFIRE military satellite, which will observe the launch.
The DoD should announce the exact launch time several hours in
advance. Operation Name: NFIRE-2B

OCT 23        To be announced     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

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