[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule
Launch Alert
launch-alert at mailman.qth.net
Sat Aug 1 22:55:35 EDT 2020
LAUNCH ALERT
Brian Webb
launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net
www.spacearchive.info
2020 August 1 (Saturday) 19:42 PDT
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VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
All launch dates and times are subject to change.
Launch
Time/Window
Date (PST/PDT) Vehicle Pad/Silo
-------- ----------------- ------------- --------
AUG Unknown Minuteman III ---
ICBM test launch. Vehicle will probably send an unarmed warhead on a
ballistic trajectory to the central Pacific. This launch was publicly
announced APR 30 in a 20th Air Force News release
OCT 14? Unknown Firefly Alpha SLC-2W
Firefly Alpha first flight. Vehicle will carry multiple payloads into
orbit
OCT-DEC Unknown Delta IV Heavy SLC-6
The vehicle will carry the classified NROL-82 payload into orbit for
the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office
NOV Unknown Falcon 9 SLC-4E
Vehicle will launch the Sentinel 6A (Jason-CS) sea level measuring
satellite
NOV 30? Unknown Falcon 9 SLC-4E
Vehicle will launch the SmallSat Rideshare Mission 1
DEC 31? Unknown Falcon 9 SLC-4E
Vehicle will launch the WorldView Legion 1 and Legion 2 satellites
into orbit
JAN 13 Unknown Atlas V SLC-3
Vehicle will launch the Landsat 9 earth observation satellite
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.
PDT: Pacific Daylight Time
PST: Pacific Standard Time
SLC: Space Launch Complex
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NASA, ULA LAUNCH MARS ROVER MISSION
Jet Propulsion Laboratory News Release
2020 July 31
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is on its way to the Red
Planet to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples to
send back to Earth.
Humanity's most sophisticated rover launched with the Ingenuity Mars
Helicopter at 7:50 a.m. EDT (4:50 a.m. PDT) Friday on a United Launch
Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"With the launch of Perseverance, we begin another historic mission of
exploration," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "This amazing
explorer's journey has already required the very best from all of us
to get it to launch through these challenging times. Now we can look
forward to its incredible science and to bringing samples of Mars home
even as we advance human missions to the Red Planet. As a mission, as
an agency, and as a country, we will persevere."
The ULA Atlas V's Centaur upper stage initially placed the Mars 2020
spacecraft into a parking orbit around Earth. The engine fired for a
second time and the spacecraft separated from the Centaur as expected.
Navigation data indicate the spacecraft is perfectly on course to Mars.
Mars 2020 sent its first signal to ground controllers via NASA's Deep
Space Network at 9:15 a.m. EDT (6:15 a.m. PDT). However, telemetry
(more detailed spacecraft data) had not yet been acquired at that
point. Around 11:30 a.m. EDT (8:30 a.m. PDT), a signal with telemetry
was received from Mars 2020 by NASA ground stations. Data indicate the
spacecraft had entered a state known as safe mode, likely because a
part of the spacecraft was a little colder than expected while Mars
2020 was in Earth's shadow. All temperatures are now nominal and the
spacecraft is out of Earth's shadow.
When a spacecraft enters safe mode, all but essential systems are
turned off until it receives new commands from mission control. An
interplanetary launch is fast-paced and dynamic, so a spacecraft is
designed to put itself in safe mode if its onboard computer perceives
conditions are not within its preset parameters. Right now, the Mars
2020 mission is completing a full health assessment on the spacecraft
and is working to return the spacecraft to a nominal configuration for
its journey to Mars.
The Perseverance rover's astrobiology mission is to seek out signs of
past microscopic life on Mars, explore the diverse geology of its
landing site, Jezero Crater, and demonstrate key technologies that
will help us prepare for future robotic and human exploration.
"Jezero Crater is the perfect place to search for signs of ancient
life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in
Washington. "Perseverance is going to make discoveries that cause us
to rethink our questions about what Mars was like and how we
understand it today. As our instruments investigate rocks along an
ancient lake bottom and select samples to return to Earth, we may
very well be reaching back in time to get the information scientists
need to say that life has existed elsewhere in the universe."
The Martian rock and dust Perseverance's Sample Caching System
collects could answer fundamental questions about the potential for
life to exist beyond Earth. Two future missions currently under
consideration by NASA, in collaboration with ESA (European Space
Agency), will work together to get the samples to an orbiter for
return to Earth. When they arrive on Earth, the Mars samples will
undergo in-depth analysis by scientists around the world using
equipment far too large to send to the Red Planet.
An Eye to a Martian Tomorrow
While most of Perseverance's seven instruments are geared toward
learning more about the planet's geology and astrobiology, the MOXIE
(Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) instrument's
job is focused on missions yet to come. Designed to demonstrate that
converting Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen is possible, it could
lead to future versions of MOXIE technology that become staples on
Mars missions, providing oxygen for rocket fuel and breathable air.
Also future-leaning is the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which will
remain attached to the belly of Perseverance for the flight to Mars
and the first 60 or so days on the surface. A technology
demonstrator, Ingenuity's goal is a pure flight test - it carries no
science instruments.
Over 30 sols (31 Earth days), the helicopter will attempt up to five
powered, controlled flights. The data acquired during these flight
tests will help the next generation of Mars helicopters provide an
aerial dimension to Mars explorations - potentially scouting for
rovers and human crews, transporting small payloads, or investigating
difficult-to-reach destinations.
The rover's technologies for entry, descent, and landing also will
provide information to advance future human missions to Mars.
"Perseverance is the most capable rover in history because it is
standing on the shoulders of our pioneers Sojourner, Spirit,
Opportunity, and Curiosity," said Michael Watkins, director of NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "In the same way,
the descendants of Ingenuity and MOXIE will become valuable tools for
future explorers to the Red Planet and beyond."
About seven cold, dark, unforgiving months of interplanetary space
travel lay ahead for the mission - a fact never far from the mind of
Mars 2020 project team.
"There is still a lot of road between us and Mars," said John
McNamee, Mars 2020 project manager at JPL. "About 290 million miles
of them. But if there was ever a team that could make it happen, it
is this one. We are going to Jezero Crater. We will see you there
Feb. 18, 2021."
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of America's larger Moon
to Mars exploration approach that includes missions to the Moon as a
way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with
sending the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024, NASA will
establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028
through NASA's Artemis program.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California,
built and will manage operations of the Mars Perseverance rover.
NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management, and ULA
provided the Atlas V rocket.
Learn more about the Mars 2020 mission at:
https://www.nasa.gov/mars2020
For more about America's Moon to Mars exploration approach, visit:
https://nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars
This story was originally titled "NASA, ULA Launch Mars 2020
Perseverance Rover Mission to Red Planet."
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