[Launch Alert] Vadenberg AFB Launch Schedule

Sun Sep 16 18:18:49 EDT 2012

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

                              2012 September 16 (Sunday) 15:14 PDT
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                   VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
                       As of 2012 September 16

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

NOV 14          To be announced          Minuteman III       ---
Test launch. The Defense Department may release some details about the
launch a few days in advance.  

FEB 11          To be announced          Atlas V             SLC-3E
Vehicle will launch NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission  

FEB 27          Dawn?                    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 may occur
shortly before sunrise and may create a weak Twilight Effect as
exhaust at high altitude is illuminated by the Sun  

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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                 ATLAS V/NROL-36 LAUNCH OBSERVATIONS

As expected, the September 13th launch of an Atlas V rocket from
Vandenberg AFB produced a subdued display that was only visible over a
limited area. Here the only observations of that launch.

Bill Douglass
Harris Grade
Lompoc, Calif.

Drove to Vandenberg from Santa Cruz Thursday to watch the launch from
Harris Grade up in the Hills behind Lompoc (Cops closed the road to
Surf - besides there were heavy low level clouds over the coastal area
beginning right at the roadblock. The local radio station said the
parking lot at Surf would be closed but instead they blocked it at
15th where the two Vandenberg gates are located.)

>From Harris Grade you could see all across Lompoc and it's valley but
the site itself was covered by the low cloud. It was very hazy to boot.
The bird popped up out of the cloud on schedule (2:39 PM) and the
red/orange flame was very bright and visible but you could hardly make
out the the vehicle at all through the haze. It appeared to climb
almost vertically until it was fairly near the sun which made it hard
to look at safely. I had to abandon looking with field glasses. At
that point it appeared to bend over and go down range. The white water
vapor contrail appeared all of a sudden when it was well on it's way
and high in the sky and then disappeared all at once a few tens of
seconds later. The kerosene/LOX exhaust below the flame appeared clear
from our location.

Staging was not visible with the naked eye.

The sound came with the expected delay and was muffled while in the
cloud but a clear rumbling roar once it got high enough. Not real loud
- Harris Grade is a long way away - approximately 15 miles.

I need to find a closer location to view from.

Brian Webb
Santa Barbara County, California

I observed the launch from the Summerland-Montecito area on a bluff
overlooking U.S. highway 101. The distance from my location to the
launch pad was about 55 to 65 statute miles. The sky was clear with
some haze.

Shortly after 2:39 p.m., the Atlas appeared above a building and trees
to my west. It resembled a hazy, orange point of light. I was
immediately impressed at how dim it was.

The point of light climbed and appeared to gradually pick up speed. As
expected, the rocket briefly produced a white contrail. A tenuous,
ghostly trail soon appeared behind the point of light. The ghostly
trail was present until I lost visual contact with the Atlas.

I followed the Atlas as it passed near the sun, but I soon lost it
about 60 to 90 seconds before the end of the first stage burn. I
continued scanning the sky for the Atlas and hoped to see the fleeting
puff from stage 1/2 separation. I never saw the Atlas again.

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                   NEW MEXICO LAUNCH OBSERVATIONS

On the morning of September 13th, a missile defense test was conducted
in the skies above New Mexico. The event began with the launch of a
Juno target missile from Fort Wingate, N.M. followed moments later
with the launch of a Patriot missile from White Sands, N.M. The
Patriot subsequently intercepted the target missile as it reentered
the atmosphere.

Rocket exhaust from the test was illuminated at high altitude by the
Sun's rays. For many observers, the event took place before sunrise,
producing an interesting visual display that was visible over a wide
area.

The following are selected observations of the event from Launch Alert
readers. Although there were two missiles involved with the test, most,
or perhaps all, of these observations were probably of the exhaust
from the Juno target missile.

Ashley Falsafi

"... my staff saw it this morning in Phoenix."

Brent Comsa
Arizona

"Viewed at 5:32am AZ time ... Very nice plume."

Dave Watson
Ridgecrest, California

"Approximately 5:30 this morning, a missile contrail was visible in the
east from Ridgecrest, CA.
The sky was still black; the contrail brightly illuminated.
I suspect it was the launch from White Sands, NM."

Don Machholz
Colfax, California

"At the end of my comet hunting session this morning I saw the cloud
in the east, at first thinking it was a wild fire in the distance
(smoke), but it disappeared within a few minutes.

F. Boyd
Death Valley, Calif.

"I was camping in Death Valley and saw contrail early Thurs morning."

Tom Klimek
Lemon Grove California

"The contrail from this launch was visible from San Diego  County.
These images are from Applied Network Research (ANR) and the High
Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN) i cameras
placed on mountains around Southern California.
I usually go to the HPWREN website to view the sunrise and this
morning I immediately recognized the wavy trail of a missile launch.

http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/cameras/ "

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