[Launch Alert] Launch Tomorrow Morning

[Launch Alert]

Just a reminder, a Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory satellite and several smaller university-built satellites is scheduled to liftoff from Vandenberg AFB Friday morning at 2:09 a.m.

Although several hours will elapse between liftoff and sunrise, it might be worth looking for the sunlit exhaust plume 40 to 50 minutes before sunrise. Assuming the upper level winds will be blowing towards the east-southeast at 100 knots, and the exhaust doesn't totally disperse, observers across a wide area extending from Gorman to Needles may see the launch aftermath.

Item two: There was in fact, a missile launch off of San Diego on Tuesday. If any of you have public domain, publicly releasable information regarding the location of the launch point, please let me know.

Also, a Juno target missile was launched from Fort Wingate, NM near Gallup and seen by several people in AZ and NM. If you saw the launch or have high quality photos, please contact me at launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net

Brian Webb