[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule
Launch Alert
launch-alert at mailman.qth.net
Mon May 14 22:45:50 EDT 2012
LAUNCH ALERT
Brian Webb
Ventura County, California
launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net
www.spacearchive.info
2012 May 14 (Monday) 19:11
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VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
As of 2012 May 14
Launch
Time/Window
Date (PST/PDT) Vehicle Pad/Silo
-------- ----------------- ------------- --------
AUG 2 To be announced Atlas V SLC-3E
Vehicle will launch the classified NROL-36 payload for the U.S.
National Reconnaissance Office. The vehicle will also reportedly
carry the following secondary payloads: CINEMA (Cubesat for Ion,
Neutral, Electron, Magnetic fields), University of California
Berkeley; CSSWE (Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment),
University of Colorado at Boulder; CP5, California Polytechnic
University; CXBN (Cosmic X-ray Background Nanosat) Morehead State
University; ORSES (ORS Enabler Satellite), US Army Space and Missile
Defense Command; Aeneas, Department of Homeland Security/University
of Southern California; Horus, Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory; Re, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and three
Aerocube spacecraft.
DEC 1 06:32:24-06:37:24 Pegasus XL N/A
Vehicle will be air-dropped from an L-1011 jumbo jet flying offshore.
The aircraft will be staged from Vandenberg AFB. Launch occurs shortly
before sunrise and may create a weak Twilight Effect as exhaust at
high altitude is illuminated by the Sun.
Unknown To be announced Minuteman III ---
Test launch. Delayed from May 16. The Defense Department may release
some details about the launch a few days in advance.
2012 To be announced Falcon 9 SLC-4E
Vehicle will launch a payload for MDA Corp. (Canada)
2012 To be announced Falcon Heavy SLC-4E
Falcon Heavy demonstration flight
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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Please DO NOT attempt to view this event before reading the following
article on Sky & Telescope's Web site:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home
/Safely-View-the-Upcoming-Eclipse-and-Transit-150863835.html
PARTIAL - AND ANNULAR - ECLIPSE OF THE SUN TO
SWEEP NORTH AMERICA SUNDAY, MAY 20TH
Sky & Telescope Press Release
2012 May 14
Reprinted and adapted from:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/about/pressreleases/150977245.html
People with clear skies across most of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico
will experience a partial eclipse of the Sun late this Sunday
afternoon (May 20, 2012). Only those near the Eastern Seaboard will
miss out.
And, if you happen to be in a swath of land running from Northern
California to Texas, you'll also get a very special kind of partial
eclipse: an annular eclipse, in which the rim of the Sun becomes a
brilliant ring completely encircling the black silhouette of the Moon.
The Sun will be moving down the afternoon sky when a dark dent begins
to intrude into one edge. The dent will deepen, eventually turning the
Sun into a fat crescent - or, for western half of the continent, a
thin crescent. The dent is the silhouette of the new Moon traveling
along its monthly orbit around the Earth.
Most Westerners can see the entire eclipse from beginning to end
before sunset. Farther east, sunset puts an end to the show while the
eclipse is still in progress - affording weird and spectacular sunset
scenes just above the west-northwest horizon. "This is going to be a
great photo opportunity," suggests Robert Naeye, editor in chief of
Sky & Telescope magazine. For a how-to, see Sky & Telescope's article
Photograph the Solar Eclipse.
The farther east you are, the earlier in the eclipse the Sun sets for
your location. The Eastern Seaboard misses out completely; here the
Sun sets before the eclipse even begins. The map at right tells the
story for your location.
The eclipse will become annular (a "ring eclipse") for parts of
southern Oregon, northern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New
Mexico, and a bit of Texas, as also shown on the map. The annular
aspect makes this the first "central" solar eclipse (meaning total or
annular) to cross the United States since 1994. Untold numbers of
people are planning to travel to the path of annularity for the grand
event.
Americans are seeing the tail end of this eclipse. Its annular part
begins at sunrise along the southern coast of China (where the local
date is May 21st), then crosses parts of Japan, including Tokyo on the
centerline. It then speeds across the North Pacific through much of
the day before making landfall on the California-Oregon coast in the
late afternoon of the 20th (local date).
What to Watch For
"Annular" means "ringlike." This is the kind of eclipse we see when
the Moon is at its farthest from Earth and appears slightly smaller in
the sky than the Sun does. The Moon will be practically at the apogee
of its orbit, its farthest from Earth - two weeks, or half an orbit,
after the Moon was a "supermoon" at perigee when full on May 5th.
Only 88% of the Sun's surface area will be blocked during annularity.
"This will result in less change in the quality of the daylight than
you might think," says Alan MacRobert, a Sky & Telescope senior
editor. "Moderately thin clouds would dim the sunlight more. And if
you're where the eclipse is only partial, the dimming will be less."
The exposed part of the Sun will remain blindingly bright - literally
so - so anyone viewing any part of this eclipse, partial or annular,
must use a safe solar filter, such as a #13 or #14 rectangular
arc-welder's glass or an astronomer's filter made specifically for Sun
viewing. Ordinary dark glasses won't do. Watching the Sun through an
inadequate filter (or none) can permanently damage your eyesight.
Sky & Telescope's website describes several recommended Sun-viewing
methods.
"When the eclipse is deep or annular, the clear blue sky will become a
darker, deeper blue than normal," says MacRobert. "Look for Venus -
it's shining east of the Sun by about two fist-widths at arm's length.
Jupiter and Mercury will be tougher. They're on the other side of the
Sun by about a quarter and a third as far, respectively, and they're
not as bright."
Other things to look for during this eclipse include a silvery or
metallic quality to the light around the time of annularity or when
the Sun is a thin crescent. Look for images of the crescent or ring
Sun being cast under leafy trees; small openings between leaves often
make "pinhole cameras" projecting images of the Sun on the ground.
A partial or annular eclipse is a rewarding experience in itself, but
it's no match for a total eclipse of the Sun. "The next total eclipse
of the Sun to cross the United States will be on August 21, 2017,"
says MacRobert. "So consider Sunday's event a warmup."
But another solar spectacle is coming up much sooner. Just 16 days
later, on the afternoon of June 5th, it's the planet Venus's turn to
cross the face of the Sun. The silhouette of Venus will be a small
black dot with just 3% the diameter of the Sun, compared to the Moon's
94% on May 20th.
More about the eclipse is at SkyandTelescope.com/may20eclipse.
To celebrate the eclipse, Sky & Telescope is offering its SkyWeek
starwatching app FREE from May 14th through 20th. SkyWeek presents
handy daily sights to look for in the starry night sky. Download for
iPhone or Droid.
Sky Publishing (a New Track Media company) was founded in 1941 by
Charles A. Federer Jr. and Helen Spence Federer. In addition to Sky &
Telescope and SkyandTelescope.com, the company publishes two annuals
(Beautiful Universe and SkyWatch), as well as books, star atlases,
observing guides, globes of the Moon and planets, and other fine
astronomy products.
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MINUTEMAN LAUNCH POSTPONED
by Brian Webb
2012 May 12
The Lompoc Record reports the Minuteman III test launch scheduled for
May 16th from Vandenberg AFB has been postponed due to a technical
problem.
The problem involves a command receiver decoder used in the missile's
flight termination system. The flight termination system allows ground
controllers to remotely destroy the missile in the event of an
anomaly.
According to the article, the problem is currently under investigation
and a new launch date has not been announced.
The Lompoc Record story is available online at
http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/local/minuteman-test-delayed-from-may
/article_8d8ac16c-9acd-11e1-94c4-001a4bcf887a.html
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ANACAPA SCHOOL'S NEAR SPACE PROBE SOARS 111,814 FEET OVER CALIFORNIA
Student-built, homebrew weather balloon probe returned live video and
data during three-hour flight
Anacapa School News Release
2012 May 7
Members of the Anacapa Near Space Exploration Club (ANSEC) at Anacapa
School are celebrating the weekend success of their second near space
probe Anacapa Amateur High-Altitude Balloon 2 (AAHAB-2). The high
school team launched two payload capsules tethered to a weather
balloon on Saturday, May 5 at 6:52 a.m. from a site off Highway 166,
northwest of New Cuyama, Calif.
Equipped with GPS, atmospheric sensors, high-definition video and
still cameras, a television transmitter and a Geiger counter, AAHAB-2
downlinked live data, video and images to the crew during its ascent.
As the balloon climbed through the thinning air, the decreasing
atmospheric pressure caused it to expand nearly ten times in diameter.
Upon reaching its apex above California's Central Valley, the balloon
burst, sending the payload back to the surface under the canopy of a
small parachute. By reaching an altitude of 111,814 feet, AAHAB-2
shattered the record of the group's own AAHAB-1 flight by more than
20,000 feet.
AAHAB-2 was designed and built entirely by Anacapa students Grayson
Baggiolini, Julio Bernal, Alex Carlson, Christian Eckert and Genevieve
Hatfield under the supervision of their faculty advisor Levi Maaia.
The team has been working on the project since September 2011.
Carlson, an 18-year-old senior at Anacapa, and Hatfield, a 15-year-old
sophomore, earned their amateur radio licenses, allowing the group to
use specialized higher-power wireless equipment to transmit live video
images and data from the capsule to the ground crew throughout the
flight. With the support of members of the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio
Club, the Anacapa crew watched the live television downlink as the
balloon climbed through the freezing, harsh conditions of the upper
atmosphere into the dark, eerily-silent skies of near space.
"I am confident in saying that AAHAB-2 was a success," said Carlson,
the mission's flight director. "There are some things we would do
differently next time around, but overall we accomplished more than I
ever expected."
The craft's three-hour and 18-minute flight was about one hour longer
than the team anticipated, causing some moments of anxiety as they
watched position reports creep eastward toward the Sierra Nevada.
"Our initial projections showed that it would touch down near Taft,"
said Eckert, a 16-year-old junior. "We never expected it to climb so
high and stay there for so long!"
Fortunately for the crew, the descending capsules landed just short of
the ridgeline, touching down in ranchland at the base of the foothills
south of Bakersfield.
The students expect to thoroughly document the flight and analyze the
collected data over the coming weeks. More information, including
additional photos and a condensed version of the in-flight video on
YouTube can be found online at www.anacapaschool.org/ansec.
Anacapa School is an independent, co-educational, WASC-accredited,
college preparatory day school for students in grades 7-12. Founded in
1981 by Headmaster Gordon Sichi, Anacapa enjoys the best
student-teacher ratio of any school, public or private, in Santa
Barbara at its historic campus located in the heart of the Santa
Barbara civic center.
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public release.
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Copyright 2012, Brian Webb. All rights reserved. No portion of this
newsletter may be used without identifying Launch Alert as the
source and providing a functioning hyperlink or text that point to
http://www.spacearchive.info/newsletter.htm.
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