[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule

Tue May 17 23:29:39 EDT 2011

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

                                   2011 May 17 (Tuesday) 20:21 PDT
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                   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.

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              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.

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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". 

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