[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule

[Launch Alert]

                             LAUNCH ALERT
 				  
			      Brian Webb
		  launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net
	                www.spacearchive.info
		       
                                2020 November 1 (Sunday) 18:16 PST
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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
--------        -----------------        -------------       --------

NOV 10          11:31                    Falcon 9            SLC-4E
Vehicle will launch the Sentinel 6A (Jason-CS) sea level measuring
satellite

DEC             Unknown                  Delta IV Heavy      SLC-6
Vehicle will launch the NROL-82 classified payload for the U.S.
National Reconnaissance Office

DEC 21?         Unknown                  Firefly Alpha       SLC-2W
Firefly Alpha first flight. Vehicle will carry multiple payloads into
orbit

JAN             Unknown                  Falcon 9            SLC-4E
Vehicle will launch the WorldView Legion 1 and Legion 2 satellites
into orbit

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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   SOUNDING ROCKET TO SEE WHAT KEEPS INTERGALACTIC SPACE SIZZLING
                   NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center
                             2020 OCT 29

NASA’s next sounding rocket will measure light from some of the
hottest stars, in hopes of finding out what’s cooking the space
between galaxies.

The Dual-channel Extreme Ultraviolet Continuum Experiment, or DEUCE,
is scheduled to launch from the White Sands Missile Range in New
Mexico early on Nov. 2. This is DEUCE’s second flight, during which it
will observe the second of two stars on its target list. Once above
Earth's atmosphere, it will measure that star’s extreme ultraviolet
light to see if it might explain how the matter between galaxies
remains puzzlingly hot.

One of the chief mysteries about the intergalactic medium, the stuff
that fills the vast space between galaxies, is why it is a plasma – a
gas so hot that its atoms have been pried apart. In the depths of
space, positively charged ions buzz alongside negatively charged
electrons at temperatures over 180,000 degrees Fahrenheit (100,000
degrees Celsius), so hot they can’t recombine into stable atoms.

Astronomers know how it got that way – in the turbulent early days of
the universe, exploding stars called supernovae were common, and kept
the intergalactic medium sizzling. The mystery is how, in a far calmer
universe, it stays ionized today.

“Without a consistent source of ionizing radiation, it should
recombine – it's had billions of years to do so," said James Green, an
astrophysicist at the University of Colorado and principal
investigator of the DEUCE mission. "So there must be a continuing
source of ionizing radiation. Where's that coming from?”

The most likely explanation is that starlight escaping from galaxies
pours out into the intergalactic medium, frying the atoms there. But
only certain kinds of starlight could do it. Ionizing the
intergalactic medium – which is made mostly of hydrogen – takes
extreme ultraviolet light, and only O- and B-type stars emit enough to
do the job.

O-type stars, which are up to a million times brighter than our Sun,
are the hottest and brightest in the universe. But they don’t live
long enough to be a consistent power source. B-type stars live longer
but tend to be dimmer, so gas within their galaxy would absorb much of
their extreme UV light before it could escape. 

With the DEUCE mission, Green is testing out a combined idea: that O
and B stars give a one-two punch.

“The theory proposes that the O stars go through their supernova
phase, blow holes out of the galaxy, and maybe then the B stars – 
which live longer but aren't as massive or hot – shine their light
out,” said Green. “While they don't produce nearly as many photons as
the O stars, B stars might be more efficient at getting them to the
intergalactic medium.”

To find out, Green is observing the two nearest B stars: Epsilon Canis
Majoris, also known as Adhara, and Beta Canis Majoris, also known as
Mirzam. Located about 500 light-years away in the constellation Canis
Major, both stars are visible with the naked eye.

The extreme ultraviolet light from both stars that reaches Earth is
quickly absorbed by our thick atmosphere. So Green and his team are
launching their instruments on a sounding rocket, a type of rocket
that makes a brief trip into space and then falls back to Earth. In
its roughly 15-minute flight, DEUCE will have about six minutes of
observing time.

DEUCE will target Beta Canis Majoris for this flight, having observed
Epsilon in 2018. The 2018 measurements found Epsilon likely isn’t
bright enough to ionize the intergalactic medium, but Green stresses
the importance of making multiple measurements.

“I don't know if the star is typical or atypical,” said Green. “The
second measurement is always cool, because it's either the same, or
it's different.”

Like many sounding rocket missions, DEUCE is also testing out new
technology. The rocket payload uses a new kind of microchannel plate
detector – a device used to measure both particles and light. DEUCE’s
plate is larger and made of more durable material – the same stuff
that used to go into Pyrex plates.

“They have a lot of advantages over the plates that are currently in
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which are all glass. They're much
hardier as well, more physically robust and harder to break,” Green
said.

Being hardy is especially important for sounding rocket payloads,
which parachute back to the ground after the flight. The team hopes to
refurbish the payload in time for a new launch from Australia in 2021.
There, it will observe our closest neighboring star system, Alpha
Centauri, to see if its starlight is too intense to support a
habitable exoplanet.

“The last two recoveries have been completely intact. We just turn it
on and it works,” Green said. “Hopefully it'll be the same here. We'll
take it back to Colorado, clean it up, make some modifications and in
February, we'll get ready for the Australia campaign.”

The DEUCE experiment will launch aboard a Black Brant IX sounding
rocket. NASA’s sounding rocket program, based out of NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility, flies 20 rockets
annually, testing new instruments and supporting cutting-edge research
in astrophysics and heliophysics.

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