From launch-alert at mailman.qth.net  Mon May  2 21:38:48 2011
From: launch-alert at mailman.qth.net (Launch Alert)
Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 18:38:48 -0700
Subject: [Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule
Message-ID: <000301cc0932$e34cd5a0$a9e680e0$@net>


                             LAUNCH ALERT
 				  
                              Brian Webb
                     Ventura County, California
                  launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net
                        www.spacearchive.info
		       
                                     2011 May 2 (Monday) 18:28 PDT
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                   VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
                         As of 2011 May 2

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

NET JUN 9        07:20:13-07:25:13        Delta II          SLC-2W
Vehicle will launch Argentina's SAC-D environmental satellite
carrying NASA's Aquarius instrument  

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.

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

                     Meteors from Halley's Comet
                           By Dauna Coulter
                  Reprinted from science.nasa.gov
                             2011 April 27

Looking for an adventure? Get up in the wee hours of the morning May
6th and head out into the country, far from the city lights. You won't
be alone. The birds will be up and singing about the coming dawn, and,
of course, about the eta Aquarid meteor shower. 

The eta Aquarids are best viewed from the southern hemisphere, but
there's something special about them no matter where you live: "Each
eta Aquarid meteoroid is a piece of Halley's Comet doing a kamikaze
death dive into the atmosphere," explains NASA astronomer Bill Cooke.
"Many people have never seen this famous comet, but on the morning of
May 6th they can watch bits of it leave fiery trails across the sky." 

A messenger from the dawn of the universe, Halley's Comet orbits the
sun once every 76 years. Each time it swings by the sun, intense solar
heat vaporizes about 6 meters of ice and rock from the nucleus. The
debris particles, about the size of sand grains, spread along the
comet's orbit, filling it with tiny meteoroids. 

"Although Halley's Comet is deep in the outer solar system at the
moment and won't return to Earth until 2061, it treats us to a meteor
shower twice a year as our planet passes by the debris cloud," says
Cooke. "In May we have the eta Aquarids, and in October the
Orionids." 

And there is something especially significant about the 2011 eta
Aquarids. 

"This is your one chance this year to see meteors blaze across the sky
without glaring moonlight dimming them." 

A thin crescent moon will vacate the sky in the early evening,
leaving a dark canvas for the display. Early risers are in luck, as
the best viewing is an hour or two before dawn. Lie down where you
can see as wide an expanse of sky as possible to catch more meteors
with your peripheral vision. Look up into the darkness and relax. 

The radiant for the eta Aquarids is in the constellation Aquarius:
diagram. But you don't need to look toward the radiant to see the
meteors. 

"Meteors can appear in any part of the sky," says Cooke. "In fact
their trails will tend to point back toward the radiant, so if you
look that way the meteor may appear somewhat stubby. They'll appear
much longer going by you than coming at you." 

You won't need binoculars or a telescope to observe eta Aquarid
meteors. The naked eye's field of view is usually best for seeing
meteors, which frequently streak more than 45 degrees across the sky. 

"Eta Aquarids are fast, moving at 66 km/s (148,000 mph!), and often
trace long paths across the sky, sometimes leaving glowing, persistent
trains. In the northern hemisphere, depending on your latitude [the
closer to the equator the better], you should see from 10 to 40
meteors just before dawn." 

Remember to pack a reclining chair or an old blanket to lie on, and a
thermos of hot coffee would be nice. After all, you'll be up mighty
early! The spring night air may be damp and chill, so bring along
another blanket--or better yet, a big furry dog, both for warmth and
company. Golden Retrievers work nicely. 

It's sure to be a memorable experience. A night breeze caressing your
cheek, the aroma of hot coffee in the predawn air, a gently rising
chorus of birdsong accompanying your own personal light show -- and
your greatest admirer by your side. It just doesn't get any better. 

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

                       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

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

Copyright 2011, Brian Webb. All rights reserved. This newsletter may
be distributed in its entirety without restriction. Excerpts may not
be reprinted or posted elsewhere without prior permission.



From launch-alert at mailman.qth.net  Thu May  5 20:56:18 2011
From: launch-alert at mailman.qth.net (Launch Alert)
Date: Thu, 5 May 2011 17:56:18 -0700
Subject: [Launch Alert] Fifty Years Ago Today
Message-ID: <000601cc0b88$69a48830$3ced9890$@net>

I just wanted to mark an important anniversary in the U.S. space program.
Fifty years ago today, Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in
space.

A Mercury capsule containing the 37 year old Navy Commander lifted off from
Cape Canaveral atop a Redstone rocket and flew a ballistic arc before
landing in the Atlantic. The flight lasted about 15 minutes.

Although I do not remember watching the flight on television, I had the
honor of meeting and talking with Shepard at the Johnson Space Center in
Houston during the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission.

Brian Webb


From launch-alert at mailman.qth.net  Tue May 17 23:29:39 2011
From: launch-alert at mailman.qth.net (Launch Alert)
Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 20:29:39 -0700
Subject: [Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule
Message-ID: <002401cc150b$d33ff770$79bfe650$@net>

                                    
                             LAUNCH ALERT
 				  
                              Brian Webb
                     Ventura County, California
                  launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net
                        www.spacearchive.info
		       
                                   2011 May 17 (Tuesday) 20:21 PDT
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                   VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
                         As of 2011 May 15

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

NET JUN 9	07:20:13-07:25:13      Delta II         SLC-2W
Vehicle will launch Argentina's SAC-D environmental satellite carrying
NASA's Aquarius instrument  

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.

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

              KECK TELESCOPE TO FOCUS ON RINGS OF SATURN
                    Westmont College News Release
                             2011 May 13

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Saturn will be the star of the party Friday,
May 20, from 8-11 p.m. during a free, public viewing with the Keck
Telescope at Westmont's observatory. Westmont serves as one of the
public observing sites for the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit (SBAU)
every third Friday of the month, weather permitting. In case of
inclement weather, please call the Telescope Viewing Hotline at (805)
565-6272 and check the Westmont website at www.westmont.edu to see if
the viewing has been cancelled. 

Westmont physics instructor Thomas Whittemore, who earned his
doctorate at the University of Arizona, says the moon won't rise until
about 11:30 p.m., making Saturn a magnificent target. "If the night is
steady, we should be able to see the Cassini Division, a blank
separation between the A and B rings, along with five of this gas
giant's moons: Titan, Rhea, Dione, Tethys and Enceladus," he says. 

Fainter objects in the evening sky that may be available for viewing
include globular clusters, M3 in Canes Venatici, and M5 in Serpens.
Each is a member of the Milky Way. M3 lies about 33,900 light-years
from earth and contains about 500,000 stars which are older than our
Sun. "One of my favorites, M5, lies some 24,500 light-years from
Earth, is oval in shape and spans about 150 light years from side to
side," Whittemore says. "These remarkably bright objects will
certainly dazzle the public's eyes." 

Westmont students and faculty use the 24-inch reflector telescope to
conduct astronomical research. The Keck Telescope is housed in the
observatory between Russell Carr Field and the track and field/soccer
complex. Free parking is available near the baseball field.

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

Gravity Probe B was launched from Vandenberg AFB in 2004 - Editor


           GRAVITY PROBE B CONFIRMS TWO EINSTEIN THEORIES
                         NASA News Release
                             2011 May 4

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission has confirmed two
key predictions derived from Albert Einstein's general theory of
relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to test. 

The experiment, launched in 2004, used four ultra-precise gyroscopes
to measure the hypothesized geodetic effect, the warping of space and
time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount a
spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates. 

GP-B determined both effects with unprecedented precision by pointing
at a single star, IM Pegasi, while in a polar orbit around Earth. If
gravity did not affect space and time, GP-B's gyroscopes would point
in the same direction forever while in orbit. But in confirmation of
Einstein's theories, the gyroscopes experienced measurable, minute
changes in the direction of their spin, while Earth's gravity pulled
at them. 

The findings are online in the journal Physical Review Letters. 

"Imagine the Earth as if it were immersed in honey. As the planet
rotates, the honey around it would swirl, and it's the same with
space and time," said Francis Everitt, GP-B principal investigator at
Stanford University. "GP-B confirmed two of the most profound
predictions of Einstein's universe, having far-reaching implications
across astrophysics research. Likewise, the decades of technological
innovation behind the mission will have a lasting legacy on Earth and
in space." 

GP-B is one of the longest running projects in NASA history, with
agency involvement starting in the fall of 1963 with initial funding
to develop a relativity gyroscope experiment. Subsequent decades of
development led to groundbreaking technologies to control
environmental disturbances on spacecraft, such as aerodynamic drag,
magnetic fields and thermal variations. The mission's star tracker
and gyroscopes were the most precise ever designed and produced. 

GP-B completed its data collection operations and was decommissioned
in December 2010. 

"The mission results will have a long-term impact on the work of
theoretical physicists," said Bill Danchi, senior astrophysicist and
program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Every future
challenge to Einstein's theories of general relativity will have to
seek more precise measurements than the remarkable work GP-B
accomplished." 

Innovations enabled by GP-B have been used in GPS technologies that
allow airplanes to land unaided. Additional GP-B technologies were
applied to NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer mission, which
accurately determined the universe's background radiation. That
measurement is the underpinning of the big-bang theory, and led to
the Nobel Prize for NASA physicist John Mather. 

The drag-free satellite concept pioneered by GP-B made a number of
Earth-observing satellites possible, including NASA's Gravity
Recovery and Climate Experiment and the European Space Agency's
Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer. These
satellites provide the most precise measurements of the shape of the
Earth, critical for precise navigation on land and sea, and
understanding the relationship between ocean circulation and climate
patterns. 

GP-B also advanced the frontiers of knowledge and provided a practical
training ground for 100 doctoral students and 15 master's degree
candidates at universities across the United States. More than 350
undergraduates and more than four dozen high school students also
worked on the project with leading scientists and aerospace engineers
from industry and government. One undergraduate student who worked on
GP-B became the first female astronaut in space, Sally Ride. Another
was Eric Cornell who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. 

"GP-B adds to the knowledge base on relativity in important ways and
its positive impact will be felt in the careers of students whose
educations were enriched by the project," said Ed Weiler, associate
administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA
Headquarters. 

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., managed the
Gravity Probe-B program for the agency. Stanford University, NASA's
prime contractor for the mission, conceived the experiment and was
responsible for the design and integration of the science instrument,
mission operations and data analysis. Lockheed Martin Corp. of
Huntsville designed, integrated and tested the space vehicle and some
of its major payload components. 

For more information about Gravity Probe B, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/gpb/ 

and 

http://einstein.stanford.edu/ 


This story was originally titled "NASA's Gravity Probe B Confirms Two
Einstein Space-Time Theories". 

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

                       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

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

Copyright 2011, Brian Webb. All rights reserved. This newsletter may
be distributed in its entirety without restriction. Excerpts may not
be reprinted or posted elsewhere without prior permission.


From launch-alert at mailman.qth.net  Tue May 31 21:45:45 2011
From: launch-alert at mailman.qth.net (Launch Alert)
Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 18:45:45 -0700
Subject: [Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule
Message-ID: <000001cc1ffd$a1f18a10$e5d49e30$@net>


                             LAUNCH ALERT
 				  
                              Brian Webb
                     Ventura County, California
                  launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net
                        www.spacearchive.info
		       
                                   2011 May 31 (Tuesday) 18:32 PDT
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                   VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
                          As of 2011 May 31

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

NET JUN 9        07:20:13-07:25:13       Delta II         SLC-2W
Vehicle will launch Argentina's SAC-D environmental satellite carrying
NASA's Aquarius instrument  

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.

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

     NASA SELECTS UA-LED MOSSION TO COLLECT SAMPLE FROM ASTEROID
                 University of Arizona News Release
                             2011 May 25

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will orbit and explore asteroid 1999 RQ36
for longer than a year before closing in and collecting a sample of
pristine organic material that may have seeded Earth with the building
blocks that led to life.

TUCSON, Ariz. - NASA has selected the University of Arizona to lead a
sample-return mission to an asteroid. The team is led by Michael Drake,
director of the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. will manage the mission for
NASA. Lockheed Martin will build the spacecraft.

The OSIRIS-REx mission is budgeted for approximately $800 million,
excluding the launch vehicle.

The target asteroid - named 1999 RQ36 after the year it was discovered
- measures 575 meters (one-third of a mile) in diameter. 1999 RQ36 is
a time capsule from the early solar system rich with organic compounds
that may have seeded life on Earth.

"OSIRIS-REx will explore our past and help determine our destiny,"
said Drake. "It will return samples of pristine organic material that
scientists think might have seeded the sterile early Earth with the
building blocks that led to life. Such samples do not currently exist
on Earth. OSIRIS-REx will also provide the knowledge that will guide
humanity in deflecting any future asteroid that could collide with
Earth, allowing humanity to avoid the fate of the dinosaurs."

OSIRIS-REx stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource
Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer.

Scheduled for launch in 2016, the OSIRIS-REx mission will return the
first samples ever taken from a special type of asteroid holding clues
to the origin of the solar system and likely organic molecules that
may have seeded life on Earth.

OSIRIS-REx also will investigate an object potentially hazardous to
humanity. 1999 RQ36 has a one-in-1,800 chance of impacting the Earth
in the year 2182.

Spending longer than a year exploring 1999 RQ36 before acquiring
samples, OSIRIS-REx will provide geologic context essential to
expanding our understanding of the asteroid-comet continuum. The
mission will provide near-live coverage of 1999 RQ36 operations and
sample return to Earth. Samples will return to Earth in the year 2023.

The return to Earth of pristine samples with known geologic context
will enable precise analyses that cannot be duplicated by
spacecraft-based instruments. Pristine carbonaceous materials have
never before been analyzed in laboratories on Earth.

The OSIRIS-REx instrument suite will include: the OSIRIS-REx Camera
Suite (OCAMS) by the University of Arizona; the OSIRIS REx
Visible-Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) instrument by NASA Goddard; the
OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES) by Arizona State
University; and the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA) by the Canadian
Space Agency.

The team includes the University of Arizona, NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center, Lockheed Martin, Arizona State University, KinetX, the
Canadian Space Agency, NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA Ames Research
Center, NASA Langley Research Center, along with science team members
from across academia.

NASA New Frontiers is a program to explore the solar system with
frequent, medium-class spacecraft missions that will conduct
high-quality, focused scientific investigations designed to enhance
our understanding of the solar system.

"OSIRIS-REx will usher in a new era of planetary exploration," said
Dante Lauretta, the mission's deputy principal investigator and an
associate professor at the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. "For
the first time in space-exploration history, a mission will travel to,
and return pristine samples of a carbonaceous asteroid with known
geologic context. Such samples are critical to understanding the
origin of the solar system, Earth, and life."

"OSIRIS-REx will have an extraordinary impact on the University of
Arizona and our entire state," said UA President Robert N. Shelton.
"For decades, our Lunar and Planetary Laboratory has made immeasurable
contributions to our knowledge of the universe. This mission will
continue and advance that tradition, with unique opportunities for our
students and researchers." 

Extensive characterization by the Arecibo Planetary Radar System, the
Spitzer Space Telescope, and ground-based telescopes in Arizona and
elsewhere have resulted in exceptional knowledge about the asteroid.
1999 RQ36 orbits the sun every 1.2 years, crossing the Earth's orbit
every September. Its shape and rotation rate are well known, allowing
OSIRIS-REx to make a safe, albeit short, touchdown.

"Our spacecraft will sneak up to RQ36 over the course of weeks,"
Lauretta said. "Once the two objects are traveling in sync, OSIRIS-REx
will extend its sample collector, touch the surface for five seconds,
collect well over 60 grams of sample, and get out of there."

Using an injection of ultra pure nitrogen, the OSIRIS-REx
sample-collecting device will stir up dirt and small gravel to be
captured and sealed for return to Earth. The samples are returned to
the surface of the Earth using hardware and procedures successfully
demonstrated on the Stardust mission, which returned samples from
comet Wild 2 in 2006.

UA planetary science professor William Boynton is the mission
instrumentation scientist, and Peter Smith, a professor in the UA's
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and principal investigator on the
Phoenix Mars Mission, is the instrument scientist for the three
on-board cameras. Heather Enos, project manager for the TEGA
instrument on Phoenix, serves as the project planning and control
officer. Chris Shinohara, science operations manager for the Phoenix
Mission, will perform a similar role for OSIRIS-REx.

All mission science operations will be performed on the UA campus.
Anna Spitz from the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center leads the Education and
Public Outreach program. In addition to outstanding science and
educational opportunities, OSIRIS-REx will provide a significant boost
to the Arizona economy; approximately $200 million will be spent in
Tucson and across Arizona.

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

                       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

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

Copyright 2011, Brian Webb. All rights reserved. This newsletter may
be distributed in its entirety without restriction. Excerpts may not
be reprinted or posted elsewhere without prior permission.



