[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule

Wed Aug 3 23:40:22 EDT 2011

                             LAUNCH ALERT

                              Brian Webb
                     Ventura County, California
                  launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net
                        www.spacearchive.info

                               2011 August 3 (Wednesday) 20:36 PDT
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                   VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
                         As of 2011 August 3

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

AUG 10           To be announced         Minotaur IV        SLC-8
The Department of Defense will probably release the launch
window/launch time and other mission details a few days in advance.  

NET OCT 25       02:47:35-02:57:35       Delta II           SLC-2W
Vehicle will launch the NPP environmental satellite for NASA and NOAA  

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.

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

                  MINUTEMAN III LAUNCH OBSERVATIONS

An unarmed Minuteman III strategic missile was launched from
Vandenberg AFB in California on the morning of July 27 at 03:01 PDT.
The following are launch observation from Launch Alert readers and
the Editor.

Rick Rairden
Palo Alto, California

Nice clear view from Palo Alto ...
Been awhile since I watched a Minuteman. 
Westward ballistic trajectories are much more visible from here than
the southward orbital launches. 

Visible for about 120 seconds with one staging event in the middle, 
so I must have seen only the 2nd and 3rd stages.

Abrupt disappearance was southwest near rho Sagittarii, about az 224,
alt 20 deg.

Patrick Wiggins
Tooele, Utah

I'll be interested to see in your next Launch Alert email if this
morning's Minuteman launch went off as scheduled as I was able to see
from here in northern Utah "something" ascending in the SW (about
225-235 degrees azimuth) from about 04:04:00 to 04:04:20 MDT.  Red in
color and it faded rapidly at the end.  When it faded it was about 8
degrees above a relatively low horizon.

I've seen two VAFB launches from here before but both were backlit by
the recently set Sun...

Observed with 10x50 binoculars.
Skies were mostly cloudy so I lucked out in that there was a largish
hole in just the right place.

Brian Webb
Ventura County, California

I did not watch the actual launch. However, since I get up very early
on weekdays, I made a point to go outside to check if missile's exhaust
was visible because it was being illuminated at high altitude by the
Sun.

I stepped into my front yard at 05:25 PDT. Although it had started to
get light outside, it was still somewhat dark and the sky was a
medium to dark blue-gray.

At first, I didn't see anything. But high in the sky, I noticed a
very diffuse, milky-white haze. Although the approaching sunrise
would be capable of illuminating natural high clouds, it was much too
early for that to happen. Besides, any natural high clouds would be
tinted red or orange.

I went outside again at 05:43 PDT. The sky was brighter and the
diffuse, milky-white haze was no longer visible.

Over the years, I have seen an approaching sunrise illuminate the
exhaust of several other early morning or pre-dawn Vandenberg
launches after the exhaust had drifted east-southeast from the launch
site.

Based on my experience, I am fairly confident that what I saw was the
sunlit exhaust from that morning's Minuteman launch.

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

                   COSMONAUT COMMUNICATIONS HEARD

Pete Rowe (WA6WOA), a radio enthusiast in northern California heard
radio communications this morning from Russian spacesuit radios as
cosmonauts were leaving the hatch on the International Space Station
(ISS) for a space walk.

Rowe heard the signals from San Jose at 09:25 PDT on 130.168 MHz
during a high elevation pass. He told Launch Alert "I don't speak
Russian so all I understood was 'Da' and 'Nyet'."

He heard the cosmonauts again, but poorly, one orbit later as they
passed far to his west.

To hear the signals, Rowe used a 144 MHz cross-polarized yagi amateur
radio antenna and an Icom R-7000 receiver.

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

                          SPEAKING OF RADIO

The SpaceWeather.com newsletter reports that on August 2nd, the sun
hurled a cloud of plasma (CME) toward Earth when magnetic fields above
a sunspot erupted.

According to the report, "analysts expect the CME to arrive during the
early hours of August 5th, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms around
the poles. This is not a big event; the eruption that propelled the
cloud in our direction registered only "M1" (for medium) on the
Richter Scale of Flares. Nevertheless, sky watchers at high latitudes
should be alert for auroras."

Although much of the western U.S. is too far south to see auroras,
another manifestation of solar eruptions can be seen, or better yet,
heard. Solar eruptions can degrade or even knock out shortwave radio
communications for hours at a time.

If you own a shortwave receiver, you may want to regularly tune
across shortwave from 7 to 22 MHz to get a feel of what normal
conditions are like. If a solar eruption is expected to reach Earth,
try to check shortwave conditions around the predicted arrival time.

As you may know, I am an amateur radio or "ham" operator. Unlike many
of my radio counterparts, who dislike poor shortwave conditions from
solar eruptions, I find the resulting disturbances interesting and try
be on the air when they strike.

If you're a ham, try looking for me on 20 and 40 meters in the evening
from 20:00-20:30 PDT. I operate QRS CW (slow speed Morse Code) on
14,036.0 and 7,047.0 KHz +/1 1 KHz.

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

                       LAUNCH ALERT WEB PAGE

For information about this newsletter, including how to:

   - Subscribe, unsubscribe, or change addresses

   - Make a donation

Point your browser to www.spacearchive.info/newsletter.htm

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