[Launch Alert] Falcon 9 Launched from Vandenberg SFB

Wed Nov 24 08:42:54 EST 2021

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA's DART spacecraft was successfully launched from Vandenberg SFB last night. Appended below are a few news release about the mission.

I observed the launch with a friend from a location some 100 statute miles east-southeast of the launch site. Despite a layer of high clouds, portions of the event were clearly visible to the unaided eye. Using tripod-mounted binoculars, I had impressive views of the rocket's flame, exhaust plume, and first stage main engine cutoff (MECO). We looked towards the south for the flame from the spent first stage's braking maneuver prior to landing on the recovery barge. We didn't see anything. I'm not sure if that was due to the clouds or a house blocking the view to the south.

Several minutes after liftoff we heard a faint low-frequency rumble for several seconds.

Brian Webb

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NASA News Release

November 24, 2021 

RELEASE 21-161

NASA, SpaceX Launch DART: First Test Mission to Defend Planet Earth

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world’s first full-scale mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, launched Wednesday at 1:21 a.m. EST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Just one part of NASA’s larger planetary defense strategy, DART – built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland – will impact a known asteroid that is not a threat to Earth. Its goal is to slightly change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be accurately measured using ground-based telescopes.

DART will show that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it – a method of deflection called kinetic impact. The test will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth, should one ever be discovered. LICIACube, a CubeSat riding with DART and provided by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), will be released prior to DART’s impact to capture images of the impact and the resulting cloud of ejected matter. Roughly four years after DART’s impact, ESA’s (European Space Agency) Hera project will conduct detailed surveys of both asteroids, with particular focus on the crater left by DART’s collision and a precise determination of Dimorphos’ mass.

“DART is turning science fiction into science fact and is a testament to NASA’s proactivity and innovation for the benefit of all,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “In addition to all the ways NASA studies our universe and our home planet, we’re also working to protect that home, and this test will help prove out one viable way to protect our planet from a hazardous asteroid should one ever be discovered that is headed toward Earth.”

At 2:17 a.m., DART separated from the second stage of the rocket. Minutes later, mission operators received the first spacecraft telemetry data and started the process of orienting the spacecraft to a safe position for deploying its solar arrays. About two hours later, the spacecraft completed the successful unfurling of its two, 28-foot-long, roll-out solar arrays. They will power both the spacecraft and NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster – Commercial ion engine, one of several technologies being tested on DART for future application on space missions.

“At its core, DART is a mission of preparedness, and it is also a mission of unity,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This international collaboration involves DART, ASI’s LICIACube, and ESA’s Hera investigations and science teams, which will follow up on this groundbreaking space mission.”

DART’s one-way trip is to the Didymos asteroid system, which comprises a pair of asteroids. DART’s target is the moonlet, Dimorphos, which is approximately 530 feet (160 meters) in diameter. The moonlet orbits Didymos, which is approximately 2,560 feet (780 meters) in diameter.

Since Dimorphos orbits Didymos at much a slower relative speed than the pair orbits the Sun, the result of DART’s kinetic impact within the binary system can be measured much more easily than a change in the orbit of a single asteroid around the Sun.

“We have not yet found any significant asteroid impact threat to Earth, but we continue to search for that sizable population we know is still to be found. Our goal is to find any possible impact, years to decades in advance, so it can be deflected with a capability like DART that is possible with the technology we currently have,” said Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA Headquarters. “DART is one aspect of NASA’s work to prepare Earth should we ever be faced with an asteroid hazard. In tandem with this test, we are preparing the Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission, an space-based infrared telescope scheduled for launch later this decade and designed to expedite our ability to discover and characterize the potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit.”

The spacecraft will intercept the Didymos system between Sept. 26 and Oct. 1, 2022, intentionally slamming into Dimorphos at roughly 4 miles per second (6 kilometers per second). Scientists estimate the kinetic impact will shorten Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos by several minutes. Researchers will precisely measure that change using telescopes on Earth. Their results will validate and improve scientific computer models critical to predicting the effectiveness of the kinetic impact as a reliable method for asteroid deflection.

“It is an indescribable feeling to see something you’ve been involved with since the ‘words on paper’ stage become real and launched into space,” said Andy Cheng, one of the DART investigation leads at Johns Hopkins APL and the individual who came up with the idea of DART. “This is just the end of the first act, and the DART investigation and engineering teams have much work to do over the next year preparing for the main event ─ DART’s kinetic impact on Dimorphos. But tonight we celebrate!”

DART’s single instrument, the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO), will turn on a week from now and provide first images from the spacecraft. DART will continue to travel just outside of Earth’s orbit around the Sun for the next 10 months until Didymos and Dimorphos will be a relatively close 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth.

A sophisticated guidance, navigation, and control system, working together with algorithms called Small-body Maneuvering Autonomous Real Time Navigation (SMART Nav), will enable the DART spacecraft to identify and distinguish between the two asteroids. The system will then direct the spacecraft toward Dimorphos. This process will all occur within roughly an hour of impact.

Johns Hopkins APL manages the DART mission for NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office as a project of the agency’s Planetary Missions Program Office. NASA provides support for the mission from several centers, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Johnson Space Center in Houston, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The launch is managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX is the launch services provider for the DART mission.

For more information about the DART mission, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/dartmission (https://www.nasa.gov/dartmission)

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Aerojet Rocketdyne News Release

NASA’s First Planetary Defense Mission Propelled by Aerojet Rocketdyne

REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 24, 2021 – NASA’s first planetary defense mission—the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)—launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on Nov. 23, equipped with a full suite of Aerojet Rocketdyne propulsion. The mission is designed to assess if kinetic impact is a reliable method to deflect asteroids. The DART spacecraft will be flown head-on into an asteroid to change its orbit.

DART’s target is a small secondary body (or “moonlet”) orbiting near-Earth asteroid Didymos that is located approximately 6.8 million miles from Earth. If the impact is successful, the spacecraft is expected to change the orbital period of the moonlet around Didymos by several minutes, demonstrating the mission’s objective and potentially helping to protect Earth from future potential asteroid threats.

“Aerojet Rocketdyne’s role on this mission is two-fold: enabling the DART spacecraft to successfully navigate and impact its target with our chemical propulsion system, and demonstrating an innovative, new electric propulsion technology that could support future deep space, national security space and commercial missions,” said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen P. Drake.

The roughly 10-month cruise to Didymos will include several course corrections using Aerojet Rocketdyne’s chemical and electric propulsion systems to precisely align the spacecraft with the asteroid. The chemical propulsion system, comprised of 12 MR-103G hydrazine thrusters, is the primary source of propulsion on the spacecraft. Each thruster provides 0.2 pounds of thrust (lbf) to enable trajectory correction maneuvers throughout the cruise phase of the mission.

The spacecraft also features NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster-Commercial (NEXT-C) technology, which will execute propulsive impulses at various stages during the cruise. NEXT-C operates at up to 7kW of power and greater than 4100s specific impulse (Isp). This mission will affirm the capability of Aerojet Rocketdyne’s ion electric propulsion system for future missions, including deep space sample return missions or communication satellites operating in geosynchronous orbit.

NEXT-C was designed and built by Aerojet Rocketdyne in collaboration with NASA’s Glenn Research Center. The chemical propulsion system and electric propulsion xenon feed system were manufactured at Aerojet Rocketdyne’s Redmond, Washington, facility. The DART mission is funded by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office and led by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) with support from other industry partners.

About Aerojet Rocketdyne: Aerojet Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AJRD), is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader that provides propulsion systems and energetics to the space, missile defense and strategic systems, and tactical systems areas, in support of domestic and international customers. For more information, visit www.Rocket.com (www.Rocket.com) and www.AerojetRocketdyne.com (www.AerojetRocketdyne.com). Follow Aerojet Rocketdyne and CEO Eileen Drake on Twitter at @AerojetRdyne and @DrakeEileen.