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Lockheed-Martin Atlas IIA-Centaur Successfully Launches NASA Communications Satellite
Better Late Than Never
As Lockheed-Martin Atlas IIIA-Centaur Scores Success On Maiden Flight
Boeing Delta II 7000 Series Rocket Successfully Launches Air Force Navigation Satellite
Lockheed-Martin Titan IVB Successfully Launches
$250 Million Air Force Satellite
Atlas IIA-Centaur Successfully Launches GOES-L Weather Satellite
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Lockheed-Martin Atlas IIA-Centaur Successfully Launches NASA Communications Satellite
By Cliff Lethbridge
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL (June 30, 2000) - A Lockheed-Martin Atlas IIA-Centaur rocket successfully launched the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-H (TDRS-H) satellite at 8:56 a.m. EDT today from Launch Pad 36A. Launch was originally scheduled for June 29 but was postponed one day to allow inspection of the Centaur upper stage engines used to boost the satellite on its proper orbital path. Components similar to those used in the Centaur engines launched today were found to be defective during recent factory testing. This prompted additional scrutiny of the suspect components prior to launch. Today's launch was delayed about 18 minutes to allow a boat to move out of the launch danger zone in Atlantic waters off the Cape.
TDRS-H is the first of three new-generation TDRS satellites designed to replenish the existing constellation of six TDRS satellites, the first of which was launched in 1983. This was the first TDRS satellite to be launched aboard an expendable rocket. All previous TDRS satellites have been launched aboard Space Shuttles, including a TDRS satellite that was destroyed during the Challenger tragedy. TDRS satellites support air-to-ground voice, data and telemetry relay during Space Shuttle missions as well as communications and data relay for low-earth orbiting satellites like the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. The current generation of TDRS satellites is expected to extend the life of the TDRS satellite system through at least 2010.
Better Late Than Never As Lockheed-Martin Atlas IIIA-Centaur Scores Success On Maiden Flight
By Al Hartmann
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL (May 24, 2000) - After yet another nail-biting countdown, a Lockheed-Martin Atlas IIIA-Centaur successfully launched the EUTELSAT-W4 satellite from Launch Pad 36B at 7:10 p.m. EDT today. This was the fifth official attempt at launching the Atlas IIIA-Centaur on its maiden flight, although the launch came about a year behind schedule. The rocket was scheduled for launch last year, but was postponed indefinitely when owners of a TELSTAR commercial communications satellite decided they did not want to launch their payload on an unproven vehicle. That payload was unceremoniously removed from the Atlas IIIA-Centaur manifest with the rocket already at the launch pad. But, EUTELSAT-W4 ultimately replaced it, and now it has been successfully placed in orbit by the very first Atlas IIIA-Centaur.
The first attempt at launching the Atlas IIIA-Centaur, designated AC-201, came on May 15. The attempt was scrubbed due to a problem at a tracking station on the island of Bermuda. This was followed by a scrub on May 16 due to unacceptable high-altitude winds and a scrub on May 17 due to a number of technical problems with the rocket. The strangest scrub of all, and perhaps one of the most unusual in the history of Cape Canaveral, occurred during a launch attempt on May 20. About 70 boats participating in a Port Canaveral-based fishing tournament willfully disregarded Coast Guard warnings to stay out of the launch danger area in Atlantic coastal waters off the Cape. Although all of the boats were eventually chased out of the area by Coast Guard ships and Air Force aircraft, so much launch window was consumed that there was no time left to resolve a last-minute technical issue with the rocket.
Today's launch was not without high drama of its own. Although the countdown was just 10 minutes behind schedule due to a liquid nitrogen pressure problem, hearts stopped when it was revealed that a fishing boat was not responding to Coast Guard orders to leave the launch danger area. The boat was quickly chased away by an Air Force helicopter, but a slow-moving aircraft then wandered into the area. Attempts to contact this aircraft were fruitless, and launch operations simply had to wait until the aircraft wandered out of the area of its own volition. In the end, launch was about 90 minutes behind schedule - but better late than never.
The Atlas IIIA-Centaur is a revolutionary version of the Atlas. With first stage tankage extended 10 feet, it is the largest Atlas ever flown. It is also the first to fly without the "one-and-a-half stage" booster/sustainer engine combination, instead powered by a dual-chamber first stage engine. The RD-180 first stage engine is in fact Russian, marking the first time a rocket with a Russian engine has been launched from Cape Canaveral. The RD-180 is a scaled down version of the RD-170, a four-chamber engine that provides first stage propulsion for Russian Proton rockets. Russian participation in the Atlas program may seem a bit strange, since the Atlas originated as a potent weapon designed to potentially lay waste to the former Soviet Union. Lockheed-Martin officials maintain that flying a Russian engine on an Atlas rocket is clear proof that the "Cold-War" is over.
The EUTELSAT-W4 satellite was built by Alcatel Space and is designed to provide a variety of commercial communications services to European nations. The 7,000-pound satellite carries a payload of 31 transponders and has a useful life of about 12 years. EUTELSAT is a European communications consortium with 15 satellites currently in operation. EUTELSAT-W4 will provide direct satellite-to-home television service and Internet access to the Russian market through the Russian company Media Most, the same company that launched the first Russian satellite from the Cape, BONUM-1, aboard a Delta II 7000 Series Rocket on November 22, 1998. EUTELSAT-W4 will also provide digital pay-television and business communications services to the sub-Sahara region of Africa.
Boeing Delta II 7000 Series Rocket Successfully Launches Air Force Navigation Satellite
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By Cliff Lethbridge
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL (May 10, 2000) - A Boeing Delta II 7000 Series (model 7925) rocket successfully launched the NAVSTAR GPS IIR-4 satellite at 9:48 p.m. EDT today. Launch was from Pad 17A, and weather was perfect. After blazing a trail into a cloudless night sky, the rocket was visible until first stage cutoff over four minutes after launch. Launch was originally scheduled for April 21 but was scrubbed due to problems with range facilities. A launch attempt on April 22 was scrubbed to allow troubleshooting of a potential difficulty with the satellite payload. Today's launch marked the third from Cape Canaveral in one week.
NAVSTAR GPS IIR-4 is a replacement satellite in the Air Force Global Positioning System (GPS), a 24-satellite constellation designed to allow military forces to determine their location anywhere in the world with tremendous accuracy. There are currently 27 GPS satellites in orbit, including spares. The satellite launched today is destined to replace one of the original operational GPS satellites launched in 1989. Each GPS satellite circles the Earth approximately every 12 hours at an altitude of about 11,000 miles and transmits continuous signals.
Ground users can use the GPS constellation to determine their location to within a few feet and the time to within one-millionth of a second. GPS receivers were originally built for use on military ships, aircraft and land vehicles. Hand-held receivers were also built for use by ground troops. The technology eventually made its way into the civilian commercial marketplace, although initially the U.S. military scrambled the GPS signal so that civilian receivers were not as accurate as military receivers. However, the Air Force recently decided not to scramble GPS transmissions, effectively making civilian receivers as accurate as military receivers.
Each GPS satellite has a useful life of about 7.5 years. The GPS constellation is controlled from the GPS Master Control Station (MCS), operated by the 50th Space Wing's 2nd Space Operations Squadron at Falcon Air Force Base, Colorado. The GPS-dedicated ground support system consists of five monitor stations and four ground antennas located around the world. The monitor stations use GPS receivers to track the navigation signals of all the GPS satellites. Information from the monitor stations is then processed at the MCS and used to update the navigation messages sent from the GPS constellation.
Lockheed-Martin Titan IVB Successfully Launches
$250 Million Air Force Satellite
By Cliff Lethbridge
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL (May 8, 2000) - A Lockheed-Martin Titan IVB rocket successfully launched a $250 million Air Force satellite at 12:01 p.m. EDT today. Launch occurred from Launch Complex 40 just over two and one-half hours into a four-hour launch window. A number of technical issues accounted for the delay, but in the end there were no "show stoppers". Weather for the launch was perfect as the largest and most powerful unmanned rocket in the U.S. inventory blazed a trail into a nearly cloudless sky.
The rocket carried a Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite into space. Designated DSP-20, the satellite is designed to provide early warning of a ballistic missile attack and detect nuclear detonations across a large portion of the globe. The TRW-built DSP-20 will be placed in a geosynchronous orbit 22,233 statute miles above Earth. The satellite weighed about 5,250 pounds at launch and once deployed will measure 32.8 feet long by 22 feet in diameter. Solar arrays aboard the satellite are capable of generating 1,485 watts of electricity.
The successful launch is an important one for the Air Force. This was the first Titan IV launched from Cape Canaveral in over a year and follows a string of three costly Titan IV failures. A Titan IVA rocket carrying a classified military payload strayed off course and was destroyed 42 seconds after launch on August 12, 1998. The accident cost an estimated $2 billion and was the most expensive unmanned rocket failure in U.S. history. Second stage failures of two Titan IVB rockets followed on April 9, 1999 (DSP-19) and April 30, 1999 (MILSTAR-3). Cost of all three failures was a staggering $4 billion, roughly enough money to build a Space Shuttle from the ground up.
Defense Support Program Background
Atlas IIA-Centaur Successfully Launches
GOES-L Weather Satellite
By Cliff Lethbridge
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL (May 3, 2000) - A Lockheed-Martin Atlas IIA-Centaur rocket successfully launched the GOES-L weather satellite at 3:07 a.m. EDT today. Launch was delayed about 40 minutes to allow troubleshooting of ground support equipment at the launch pad. Launch was from Pad 36A, and perfect weather treated dedicated late-night viewers to a spectacular sight. The rocket remained visible to the naked eye for nearly four minutes after launch.
GOES-L, which will be redesignated GOES-11 after becoming operational, is the fourth of five in a series of sophisticated Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) constellation satellites. The satellite was designed and built by Space Systems/Loral for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the technical direction of NASA. Designated GOES-I to GOES-M, the new series of satellites incorporates innovative three-axis body stabilization which allows 150% more images to be transmitted than earlier GOES satellites.
The satellites are designed to provide images of Earth's surface, oceans, cloud cover and severe storm developments using a small area scan and fixed daily grid. Measured data from the satellites includes vertical temperature and moisture profiles, layer mean moisture, total perceptible water and lifted index, which is a measurement of weather stability. Both visible and infrared imaging are employed to provide weather forecasters with real-time data needed to create accurate short-term weather forecasts. In addition, an on-board Space Environment Monitor (SEM) measures various magnetic, radiation and solar X-ray activity in space.
The GOES-L satellite is about 88 feet long from the tip of the solar array wing to the tip of the solar sail. The solar array is capable of generating 1,167 watts of electricity. Liftoff weight of the satellite was approximately 4,888 pounds. It will be permanently deployed at an altitude of 22,847 nautical miles above Earth for a useful life of about eight years. It will take about three months to declare the GOES-L satellite operational, making it possible that it will be available to forecasters during the Atlantic Hurricane Season, which begins June 1. NASA considered a timely launch of GOES-L to be critical, having made a decision not to allow Space Shuttle Atlantis to attempt a launch of thrice-delayed Mission STS-101 in place of the weather satellite. Launch of Atlantis remains scheduled for May 18.
Additional information and images regarding the GOES constellation is available from NASA at:
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