[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule

Sat Apr 3 18:55:02 EDT 2010

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

                                 2010 April 3 (Saturday) 15:36 PDT
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                   VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
                         As of 2010 April 3

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

APR 20            Unknown               Minotaur IV Lite      SLC-8
Payload is the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 (HTV-2). The unpowered
HTV-2 will be launched from Vandenberg AFB and glide to a target site
in the Marshall Islands.  

JUN               To be announced       Minuteman III         ---
Vehicle will probably send one or more unarmed warheads on a ballistic
trajectory to the central Pacific  

JUN               To be announced       Minuteman III         ---
Vehicle will probably send one or more unarmed warheads on a ballistic
trajectory to the central Pacific  

SEP               To be announced       Minuteman III         ---
Vehicle will probably send one or more unarmed warheads on a ballistic
trajectory to the central Pacific  

OCT-DEC           Evening?              Minotaur IV           SLC-8
Payload is the Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite.
Delayed from OCT due to concerns with the launch vehicle  

OCT               To be announced       Delta II              SLC-2W
Vehicle will launch the COSMO-SkyMed 4 radar Earth-imaging satellite  

OCT               To be announced       Atlas V               SLC-3E
Vehicle will launch the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office's NROL-41
payload  

NET NOV 22        To be announced       Taurus XL             576E
Payload is the Glory scientific satellite. Vehicle will carry three
small satellites as secondary payloads: Explorer 1 Prime (Montana
State University), Hermes (University of Colorado), and KySat-1
(Kentucky space consortium).  

DEC 1             To be announced       Delta IV Heavy        SLC-6
Vehicle will launch the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office's NROL-49
payload  

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.

All launch dates and times are given in Pacific Time using a 24-hour
format similar to military time (midnight = 00:00, 1:00 p.m. = 13:00,
11:00 p.m. = 23:00, etc.). 

The dates and times in this schedule may not agree with those on other
online launch schedules, including the official Vandenberg AFB
schedule because different sources were used, the information was
interpreted differently, and the schedules were updated at different
times.

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                 ASTEROID TO OCCULT NAKED-EYE STAR
            International Occultation Timing Association
                             2010 MAR 29

On the night of April 5-6, anyone in a path extending from the Los
Angeles area to Edmonton, Alberta has a chance to see Zeta Ophiuchi, a
naked-eye star, suddenly vanish and abruptly reappear several seconds
later as the asteroid 824 Anastasia passes in front of it. 

The International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) wants as many
observers as possible to watch this event and time its length by
counting or recording it with a camcorder. 

Anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of the sky can help map the
outline of Anastasia. The detail of the measured shape will be
proportional to the number of locations from which it is observed. 

For more information, go to
http://www.asteroidoccultation.com/observations/NA/Anastasia/. 

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