[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule

Sun Mar 15 15:04:16 EDT 2009

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

                                  2009 March 15 (Sunday) 11:51 PDT
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                   VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
                         As of 2009 March 15

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

MAY 5           To be announced         Delta II        SLC-2W
Payload is the Missile Defense Agency's Space Tracking and
Surveillance System Advanced Technology Risk Reduction (STSS ATRR)
satellite(s) 

JUL             To be announced         Delta II        SLC-2W
Payload is the WorldView-2 commercial reconnaissance satellite.  

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

The above schedule is a composite of unclassified information
approved for public release from government, industry, and other
sources. It represents the Editor's best effort to produce a schedule,
but may disagree with other sources. Details on military launches are
withheld until they are approved for public release. For official
information regarding Vandenberg AFB activities, go to
http://www.vandenberg.af.mil.

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              UC SAN DIEGO ENGINEERING STUDENTS LAUNCH
                  COCKROACHES AND CAMERAS INTO SPACE
             University California San Diego News Release

                            2009 March 13

A group of cockroaches recently took a ride on a high-altitude balloon
launched into space by freshmen aerospace engineering students from
the University of California, San Diego. The cockroaches were put in a
variety of capsules to see how they would survive in different extreme
environments, including cold temperatures (-40 degrees F), minimal
atmosphere and high solar radiation. The capsules were first ground
tested in a cold vacuum chamber to insure the chambers would survive
the cold and near vacuum of space without bursting. The high-altitude
balloon experiment came off without a hitch-all the cockroaches
survived. 

Twenty-two engineering students, working in six teams, along with
graduate teaching assistants Andrew Cavender and Zach Lovering,
designed and built payload boxes that were hung from a high-altitude
balloon, which was launched from the desert near Plaster City, Calif,
into near space at 85,000 feet and then recovered nearly 65 miles east
in the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness Area. Besides the cockroaches,
other experiments and payloads included programmable digital cameras
to take images from space, and atmosphere monitoring sensors for
future investigation of weather patterns and air pollution control.
The students will also use data collected from the balloon-satellite
to evaluate solar cell efficiency. The data collected from the
experiment will be used for future balloon launches. The students may
even launch a UC San Diego high-altitude balloon club. 

The first-time UC San Diego balloon-satellite project was part of an
Introduction to Aerospace Engineering class taught by John Kosmatka
and Keiko Nomura, professors in the Jacobs School of Engineering. 

"What makes this project unique is that it's a hands-on project that
allowed students to launch a high-altitude balloon into near space,
which is something that our students have never done before," said
Kosmatka, a structural engineering professor. "We also wanted to
expose students to a teaming project environment." 

Kosmatka said some of these experiments could lead to future,
real-life engineering solutions. 

"For example, the purpose of the atmosphere monitoring experiment was
to encourage future students to investigate changing atmospheric
patterns, which could set the stage for future air quality and weather
monitoring and prediction studies," he said. "For example, if we have
more wild fires in San Diego, our students could launch a
high-altitude balloon and monitor the air quality and pollution at
different altitudes; this could aid future environmental studies." 

Kosmatka pointed to another student team that investigated and
monitored the performance of solar cells at different altitudes. 

"Solar cells have different efficiency ratings and the question is,
how do the efficiencies change with altitude?" he said. "There is a
big push in the aerospace industry to develop unmanned aircraft that
act like low-earth orbiting satellites powered by solar cells. The
research our students are doing could help determine the best flight
altitudes based upon aircraft and solar cell performance. 

"Through these types of projects, our best and brightest students in
engineering recognize that they can make a difference and that they
can change the world," Kosmatka added. 

One of those students is David Hernandez, an undergrad aerospace
engineering student, who was on the Vitals Team for the
balloon-satellite project, which was responsible for gathering data as
the balloon ascended, including recording pressure, temperature solar
radiation, and wind speed. 

"A lot of us are concerned about global warming and we want to find
out more about this trend," Hernandez said. "We want to look at the
data we collected and try to determine why there are such
discrepancies in temperatures. ... We won't know until there are more
tests conducted." 

Hernandez said he would like to continue these types of experiments
that will hopefully, one day, lead to a cleaner and healthier
environment. 

"Engineers don't get into engineering because it's easy," he said. "We
do it because we like the challenge and finding solutions to the
things that haven't been done. Since this was the first time for UC
San Diego to launch a high-altitude balloon, we started from scratch
and had to figure out what type of sensors to utilize, as well as what
measurements and payloads to do. 

"Not everybody can say they launched a high-altitude balloon 85,000
feet in the air and have the pictures to prove it," Hernandez added.
"It's really inspiring for first-year aerospace engineering students
to be able to do something tangible rather than just read about it in
a book." 

David Gross, another aerospace engineering undergrad, said the
balloon-satellite was the most interesting scientific project he's
ever done. 

"It affirmed my belief that aerospace engineering is a complex,
important, and intriguing profession," Gross said. "The entire design
process - from laying it out on paper, to purchasing the components,
to building it, to finally actually flying and retrieving the balloon
- was exciting and definitely something that I want to be a part of
with future projects. 

"UC San Diego gives freshman the opportunity to participate in great
projects like this," he added. "When it was first announced that we
would be doing this project this year, I was very satisfied that I
chose UCSD's aerospace program over some of the other options I had
coming into college. I mean, just look at some of the pictures our
on-board cameras took and tell me that isn't cool." 

As part of its balloon-satellite payload experiment, Gross's team
developed a solar cell array to measure solar energy as the balloon
ascended in the atmosphere and used a Geiger counter to measure alpha,
beta, gamma, and x-ray radiation. Indiana-based StratoStar Systems
focused on launch integration and provided the team with a system to
relay data and the balloon location to laptop computers on the ground. 

The balloon-satellite project was sponsored by NASA's California Space
Grant Consortium, whose purpose is to promote aerospace engineering
education as well as the development of the STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Math) workforce of the future. 

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