[Launch Alert] Wednesday Minuteman III Launch

Sun Jul 24 15:49:51 EDT 2011

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

                                   2011 June 24 (Sunday) 12:30 PDT
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                   WEDNESDAY MINUTEMAN III LAUNCH

As mentioned previously in Launch Alert, a Minuteman III ICBM is
scheduled for launch from Vandenberg AFB on July 27. The Air Force
recently released the launch window. According to Vandenberg,
the window is slated for 03:01 to 09:01 PDT (predawn to midmorning).
The Air Force should provide additional details about the launch
sometime tomorrow.

In past Minuteman III launches from Vandenberg, the Air Force has
scheduled liftoff for the instant the launch window opens. However,
a day or so before flight, the launch time is sometimes rescheduled 
to occur a few to several minutes into the window. Once the launch
window opens, liftoff can be delayed for a variety of reasons and can
happen at any time during the window. In rare instances, a launch is
cancelled after the window opens and rescheduled for another day.

If Wednesday's launch occurs before dawn, moonlight should not affect
launch viewing (the Moon will be a crescent in the east and 13% 
illuminated). However, observers within several miles of the coast may
have to deal with early morning low clouds. For a clear view near the
coast, you will probably have to find a viewing location 2,000 feet
above sea level or higher.

For information on Vandenberg launch viewing (including a Minuteman
III visibility plot), go to:

  www.spacearchive.info/vafbview.htm

To find out about viewing the launch from the base, point your
browser to:

  www.vandenberg.af.mil/questions/topic.asp?id=745

For information on photographing Vandenberg launches, go to:

  www.spacearchive.info/vafbphoto.htm

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       SANTA BARBARA NEAR SPACE BALLOON RECOVERED SUCCESSFULLY

    Payload Built by Natural History Museum, Amateur Radio Club &
      Hackerspace Touched the Edge of Space and Returned Safely

                       SBARC Press Release
                          2011 July 18

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. - The near space balloon launched from West
Beach in Santa Barbara on Saturday has been recovered. The Santa
Barbara Natural History Museum, along with the Santa Barbara Amateur
Radio Club and the Santa Barbara Hackerspace, collaborated to build
the craft, which carried a technology payload to an altitude of more
than 93,000 feet above the Earth, where it captured images and
dispatched flight telemetry information to ground stations throughout
California.

"It was a long and exhausting day," said Rod Fritz of the Santa
Barbara Amateur Radio Club (SBARC). "In the end, the thrill of
visiting near space was well worth all of the effort. This was a great
success for us. We learned a lot and know how to do an even better job
next time."

After assembling the payload and filling the balloon before about 50
excited onlookers, the team launched the one cubic foot near space
probe at 11:24 a.m. It ascended straight up at 900 feet per minute. At
around 20,000 feet, it turned north, and reached speeds exceeding 100
miles per hour as it soared northward. At 60,000 feet, it shifted to
the west and continued to climb until it burst over Fellows, Calif. On
its descent, it shifted to the north again, touching down at 2:00 p.m.
after approximately 2 1/2 hours of flight. It ended up in an
irrigation canal in Buttonwillow, Calif. narrowly avoiding the
enormous power station and the associated web of electric lines that
it passed over.

Throughout the craft's flight, amateur radio stations received its
radio telemetry and relayed position reports online and over the air.
Using these reports and homing in on one of the transmitters after the
landing, the recovery team was able to locate the payload just after
4:00 p.m. the same day. A complete flight summary is available at:
http://www.sbarc.org/uploads/balloon.pdf High-resolution flight photos
available for download and publication at: http://bit.ly/oqC9KL

SBARC is a non-profit public benefit corporation organized to promote
education for persons interested in telecommunications, to disseminate
information about scientific discoveries and progress in the field,
and to train communicators for public service and emergency
communications. SBARC also encourages and sponsors experiments in
electronics and promotes the highest standards of practice and ethics
in the conduct of communications.

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