[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule

Tue May 31 21:45:45 EDT 2011

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

                                   2011 May 31 (Tuesday) 18:32 PDT
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                   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.

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     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.

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