ICON – Pegasus XL – Cape Canaveral AFS, L-1011 "Stargazer" – 11.10.2019 – 04:59:05 ДМВ

Автор Salo, 05.10.2017 01:21:58

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tnt22

https://blogs.nasa.gov/kennedy/2018/10/12/managers-complete-flight-readiness-review-for-icon-satellite/
https://blogs.nasa.gov/icon/2018/10/12/managers-complete-flight-readiness-review-for-icon-satellite/
ЦитироватьManagers Complete Flight Readiness Review for ICON Satellite

Bob Granath
Posted Oct 12, 2018 at 2:38 pm


This illustration depicts NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite that will study the frontier of space, the dynamic zone high in the atmosphere where terrestrial weather fr om below meets space weather fr om above.
Photo credit: NASA


NASA and Northrop Grumman managers have completed the Flight Readiness Review ensuring preparations are on track for the launch of the agency's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite. The meeting took place at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California wh ere the spacecraft is being processed. ICON is scheduled to be launched Oct. 26, 2018, by a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket carried aloft by the company's L-1011 Stargazer aircraft.

Recent checkouts of the ICON satellite have been completed and the payload fairing was installed with that process completed on Oct. 6. The Stargazer arrived at Vandenberg the day before. Plans call for the Pegasus XL rocket with ICON aboard to soon be attached to the aircraft for the flight to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

On launch day, the Stargazer will take off from the Cape's Skid Strip runway with the Pegasus XL rocket to be launched over the Atlantic Ocean about 50 miles east of Daytona Beach, Florida. This L-1011 aircraft is a mobile launch platform and the only one of its kind in the world.

ICON is designed to study the frontier of space — the dynamic zone high in Earth's atmosphere wh ere terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above. The explorer will help determine the physics of Earth's space environment and pave the way for mitigating its effects on our technology and communications systems.

tnt22

https://blogs.nasa.gov/kennedy/2018/10/17/payload-fairing-installed-for-icon-mission/
https://blogs.nasa.gov/icon/2018/10/17/payload-fairing-installed-for-icon-mission/
ЦитироватьPayload Fairing Installed for ICON Mission

Bob Granath
Posted Oct 17, 2018 at 9:36 am



On Oct. 4, 2018, technicians at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, installed the payload fairing on the Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket that will launch NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite.

ICON is being prepared for launch on a Pegasus XL rocket which will be carried aloft by Northrop Grumman's L-1011 Stargazer aircraft. The Stargazer with the Pegasus XL attached is scheduled to fly fr om Vandenberg, where it was processed, to the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Oct. 19, 2018.
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Launch of the Pegasus XL rocket is scheduled for Oct. 26, 2018. The Stargazer jet will take off from the Skid Strip at the Cape. About 50 miles offshore of Daytona Beach, Florida, the Pegasus XL will be dropped with the engine igniting five seconds later boosting ICON to orbit. The Stargazer is a mobile launch platform and the only one of its kind in the world.

ICON will study the ionosphere, wh ere terrestrial weather meets space weather. This dynamic zone high in Earth's atmosphere can be a source of great beauty such as the aurora, but can also be disruptive to radio communications and satellites and astronaut health. ICON will help determine the physical processes at play in this "frontier of space," thus paving the way for mitigating their effects on our technology, communications systems and society.

Photo credit: NASA/Dan Quinajon
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tnt22

ЦитироватьMichael Baylor‏ @nextspaceflight 6 мин. назад

Stargazer is on its way to Cape Canaveral AFS with the Pegasus XL rocket for the ICON launch on October 26th. You can follow the flight live on @flightradar24. https://www.flightradar24.com/N140SC/1e44c5a1 


tnt22

ЦитироватьThomas Burghardt‏ @TGMetsFan98 26 мин. назад

The L-1011 carrier aircraft for the @northropgrumman Pegasus rocket overflew Cape Canaveral, flew out over the Atlantic, and is now turned back towards Florida. Still at cruising altitude. Conducting various tests, I'd guess. #ICON


tnt22

ЦитироватьUnboxing a New NASA Spacecraft

NASA Goddard

Опубликовано: 19 окт. 2018 г.

Go behind the scenes as we unbox NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, after its arrival at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Northrop Grumman engineer Steve Turek and NASA EDGE's Chris Giersch walk us through the whole process of unboxing a spacecraft - from the instrument that records every tiny bump on its journey to the special crane used to lift the spacecraft to its new home.

ICON launches on Oct. 26, 2018, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to study Earth's interface to space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmAf11F2JRohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmAf11F2JRo (5:26)

tnt22

ЦитироватьJames Dean‏Подлинная учетная запись @flatoday_jdean 6:57 - 19 окт. 2018 г.

Northrop Grumman L-1011 Stargazer carrying Pegasus XL and #NASAICON expected to depart Vandenberg shortly, arrive at Cape Canaveral AFS Skid Strip around 4 p.m. today. Launch targeted for early next Friday, Oct. 26.


tnt22

ЦитироватьNorthrop Grumman‏Подлинная учетная запись @northropgrumman 4:51 - 20 окт. 2018 г.

Our L-1011 Stargazer has arrived at @45thSpaceWing in preparation for next Friday's launch of our #PegasusXL rocket carrying the #NorthropGrumman-built #NASAICON! Launch window will open at 4:05 a.m. ET on October 26. Follow us here for mission updates!


tnt22

Расписание трансляций НАСА по освещению пуска КА ICON
ЦитироватьNASA Television Upcoming Events

Watch NASA TV

All times Eastern

OCTOBER

October 24, Wednesday
1 p.m. – ICON, the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, Mission Pre-Launch and Science Briefing (All Channels)

October 25, Thursday
3 p.m. – NASA EDGE: Ionospheric Connection Explorer.  Live coverage from Hanger AE and the Skid Strip for the ICON Mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida (All Channels)

October 26, Friday
3:45 a.m. – ICON, the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, Mission Launch; launch window 4 – 5:30 a.m. (All Channels)
UTC:
17:00 24.10.2018
19:00 25.10.2018
07:45 26.10.2018

tnt22

ЦитироватьJames Dean‏Подлинная учетная запись @flatoday_jdean 43 мин. назад

Poor weather forecast for early Friday launch of Pegasus XL and #NASAICON from Cape Canaveral AFS, with showers offering 30% chance of acceptable conditions. Improves to 60% Saturday.


tnt22

https://blogs.nasa.gov/kennedy/2018/10/22/stargazer-aircraft-arrives-with-pegasus-xl-icon-satellite/
https://blogs.nasa.gov/icon/2018/10/22/stargazer-aircraft-arrives-with-pegasus-xl-icon-satellite/
ЦитироватьStargazer Aircraft Arrives with Pegasus XL, ICON Satellite

Bob Granath
Posted Oct 22, 2018 at 1:08 pm


In Building 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, preflight processing nears completion for a Northrup Grumman Pegasus XL rocket on Oct. 8, 2018. Enclosed in the rocket's payload fairing is NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite.
Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin


The Northrup Grumman L-1011 Stargazer aircraft arrived Oct. 19, 2018 at the Skid Strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida following a cross-country trip fr om Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Attached beneath the Stargazer is the company's Pegasus XL rocket with NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, satellite on board.

ICON will study the ionosphere, wh ere terrestrial weather meets space weather. This dynamic zone high in Earth's atmosphere can be a source of great beauty such as the aurora, but can also be disruptive to radio communications and satellites and astronaut health. ICON will help determine the physical processes at play in this "frontier of space," thus paving the way for mitigating their effects on our technology, communications systems and society.

ICON was processed and prepared for its mission at Vandenberg. The satellite is scheduled for its airborne launch aboard the Pegasus XL rocket after takeoff from the Skid Strip during a 90-minute launch window opening at 4:00 a.m. EDT on Oct. 26.

tnt22

https://blogs.nasa.gov/kennedy/2018/10/23/nasas-icon-launch-delayed-new-launch-date-to-come/
https://blogs.nasa.gov/icon/2018/10/23/nasas-icon-launch-delayed-new-launch-date-to-come/
ЦитироватьNASA's ICON Launch Delayed; New Launch Date to Come

Bob Granath
Posted Oct 23, 2018 at 3:46 pm

NASA and Northrop Grumman have delayed the launch of the agency's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, to conduct further pre-launch testing on the rocket. Upon completion of the testing, a new launch date will be established.

The spacecraft is launching aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida. The L-1011 Stargazer carrying the Pegasus rocket arrived at CCAFS last Friday and will remain in Florida to conduct the testing. The spacecraft remains in good health.

The pre-launch mission briefing originally scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 24, also has been postponed and will be rescheduled at a later date.

tnt22

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/10/23/pegasus-rocket-launch-postponed/
ЦитироватьPegasus rocket launch postponed
October 23, 2018 | Stephen Clark


The ICON spacecraft was re-encapsulated inside the Pegasus XL rocket's nose cone at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, after an aborted launch campaign in June. Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

Continuing a series of delays keeping NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer on Earth, NASA announced Tuesday that the satellite's launch aboard an air-dropped Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket will not occur as scheduled Friday.

The $252 million science mission was set launch fr om an airborne carrier jet around 4:05 a.m. EDT (0805 GMT) Friday, but NASA said Tuesday mission managers decided to delay the flight "to conduct further pre-launch testing on the rocket."

The space agency said in a brief statement that a new launch date will be established upon completion of the testing. No further information was released by NASA or Northrop Grumman.
Спойлер
The three-stage, 55-foot-long (17-meter) Pegasus XL rocket arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Skid Strip runway Friday evening after a cross-country ferry flight under the belly of its L-1011 carrier aircraft fr om Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Ground teams fr om Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, formerly known as Orbital ATK, prepared the solid-fueled Pegasus rocket and its satellite payload at Building 1555 at Vandenberg, then rolled the vehicle out to an airfield for attachment to the L-1011 aircraft, dubbed "Stargazer."

The L-1011 flight crew navigated through the Pegasus rocket's "drop box" at an altitude of 39,000 feet (11,900 meters) around 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Daytona Beach before landing at the Skid Strip. The practice run was intended to familiarize the pilots with the drop zone, and verify the Pegasus rocket's compatibility with the U.S. Air Force's range safety systems at Cape Canaveral.


In this Oct. 12 photo, the fully-assembled Pegasus XL rocket with the ICON satellite is prepared for attachment to its L-100 carrier aircraft at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

Activities that were planned in the final week leading up to Friday's launch included a launch rehearsal, additional range compatibility checks, inspections and final closeouts on the rocket.

The ICON satellite fastened to the Pegasus XL rocket will explore a mysterious connection between the ionosphere, a layer in the upper atmosphere ranging more than 60 miles (or 100 kilometers) above Earth, and weather conditions closer to the planet.

Scientists have long thought the solar wind was the leading influencer on conditions in the ionosphere, wh ere plasma and particles converge to generate colorful auroral displays. Plasma in this region can also potentially impact communications, satellite navigation, and even electrical power grids.

"For a long time, (the solar wind) was thought to be the primary driver of variation in the ionosphere, or variations in the space environment," said Douglas Rowland, ICON's mission scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "What we've learned in the last decade is that the lower atmosphere, some of our rainstorms and our tropical rainstorms, have a much bigger impact on the ionosphere, and how that distribution of plasma occurs can affect GPS."

ICON is the first mission dedicated to examining the link between weather on Earth and conditions high above the planet.


Northrop Grumman's L-1011 carrier jet, named "Stargazer," arrived at Cape Canaveral's Skid Strip runway Friday. Credit: Northrop Grumman

ICON's ride into space has been delayed more than a year by concerns related to its Pegasus launcher. The delays ultimately drove NASA and Northrop Grumman to move the launch's staging base to Cape Canaveral from Kwajalein Atoll, wh ere the U.S. Army runs a test site in the mid-Pacific Ocean.

Engineers wanted more time to inspect the Pegasus rocket motors after they were mishandled during shipment to Vandenberg, officials said. That pushed the launch back from June to December 2017, the next availability in the military-run range at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.

Then managers decided to ground the mission to assess the reliability of bolt-cutters used to jettison the Pegasus rocket's payload fairing and separate the satellite in orbit.

With that concern resolved, managers moved forward with plans to launch the Pegasus XL rocket with ICON on June 14. But engineers noticed an unexpected telemetry signal from the rocket's rudder fin actuator after the L-1011's departure June 6 from Vandenberg on a two-day ferry flight to Kwajalein.

During a planned stopover in Hawaii, officials decided to abort the mission and return the rocket to California for troubleshooting, giving up ICON's launch slot at the busy military test range at Kwajalein. Workers removed the rocket from the carrier jet and returned it to the Building 1555 hangar, wh ere they traced the problem to a faulty sensor requiring replacement.

That prompted NASA and Northrop Grumman to move the ICON launch from Kwajalein to a point off Florida's east coast.

"The question we normally get is why wouldn't you stage out of the Cape to begin with?" said Tim Dunn, a NASA launch director, in an interview in June. "It's an interesting one because when ICON was first developed, it had an estimated mass that just tipped the scales of capability of coming out of the Cape at roughly 28-and-a-half degrees north latitude. From a capability point-of-view, Pegasus just could not do it from the Cape, so Orbital ATK offered in the proposal to go back to Kwaj."

The Pegasus XL rocket will place the roughly 600-pound (272-kilogram) ICON satellite, also built by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, into a 357-mile-high (575-kilometer) orbit inclined 27 degrees to the equator.

ICON requires a dedicated launch because few other satellites go into such an orbit, restricting rideshare launch opportunities.

It turns out ICON ended up weighing a little less than originally planned, meaning its Pegasus launcher can steer the satellite into its planned orbit within needing a launch site closer to the equator.

Officials then delayed the mission from a planned launch date of Oct. 6 to address a quality issue with a vendor-supplied electrical connector on the Pegasus rocket.

The ICON mission will be the 44th launch of a Pegasus rocket on a satellite delivery mission, and the 34th in the Pegasus XL configuration with uprated solid rocket motors. It will be the seventh Pegasus launch based out of Cape Canaveral, which hosted the most recent Pegasus rocket mission in December 2016.
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tnt22

https://tass.ru/kosmos/5711134
Цитировать24 ОКТ, 00:17
NASA отложило запуск спутника из-за необходимости проверить ракету-носитель

НЬЮ-ЙОРК, 24 октября. /ТАСС/. Национальное управление по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства (NASA) США отложило на неопределенный срок запуск спутника ICON, предназначенного для изучения ионосферы Земли. Такой шаг обусловлен необходимостью продления предполетных испытаний ракеты-носителя Pegasus, сообщило во вторник NASA.

Старт носителя со спутником с космодрома на мысе Канаверал (штат Флорида) планировалось произвести 26 октября. Разработчиком ракеты Pegasus XL является корпорация Northrop Grumman.

"NASA и Northrop Grumman отложили запуск исследователя ионосферы ICON для того, чтобы провести дополнительные достартовые испытания ракеты. После завершения этих испытаний будет определена новая дата пуска", - уточнило космическое ведомство США.

По его информации, носитель со спутником были доставлены в минувшую пятницу на базу ВВС США на мысе Канаверал на борту модифицированного транспортного самолета L-1011 Stargazer. Тестирование ракеты будет проводиться там же. "Космический аппарат находится в хорошем состоянии", - заверило NASA.

Ведомство планировало провести брифинг для прессы по поводу запуска спутника 24 октября. Это мероприятие также отложено на неопределенный срок.

tnt22

ЦитироватьNorthrop Grumman‏Подлинная учетная запись @northropgrumman 4 мин. назад

Bryan Baldwin, Sr Dir of Pegasus, addresses today's #NASASocial: We monitor data every time we captive carry our #PegasusXL rocket & we saw data we wanted to take more time to understand. We're tentatively looking at middle of next week for launch #NorthropGrumman #NASAICON

tnt22

ЦитироватьNorthrop Grumman‏Подлинная учетная запись @northropgrumman 5 мин. назад

Robert Lockwood, Program Director for #NorthropGrumman's science and environmental satellites speaks about #NASAICON to #NASASocial: We call our portion the spacecraft and the instrument is the science side. When they are combined, we call them the observatory


us2-star

https://twitter.com/hashtag/NASAICON?src=hash
Цитировать@NASA and @northropgrumman continue preparations for #NASAICON launch and review data from Sunday's flight test & post flight testing. Availability on the Eastern Range is from Nov. 3-8. A launch date will be determined once the review is complete. More: https://go.nasa.gov/2JtLddd 

"В России надо жить долго.." (с)
"Вы рисуйте, вы рисуйте, вам зачтётся.." (с)

us2-star

Цитировать@NASA & @northropgrumman will hold a Launch Readiness Review early next week to ensure preparations are continuing on track for the launch of #NASAICON satellite, expected to launch no earlier than Wed, Nov. 7 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. More:  https://go.nasa.gov/2Qd4RNn  
"В России надо жить долго.." (с)
"Вы рисуйте, вы рисуйте, вам зачтётся.." (с)

tnt22

https://twitter.com/NASASun/status/1058375997614120961
ЦитироватьOur Ionospheric Connection Explorer satellite — ICON — will launch no earlier than Wednesday, Nov. 7, with a 90-minute window opening at 3 a.m. EST. @NASA TV coverage starts at 2:45 a.m. EST on Nov. 7. Details: https://blogs.nasa.gov/icon/2018/11/01/nasa-to-hold-launch-readiness-review-for-icon/ ... #NASAICON

8:11 - 2 нояб. 2018 г.

tnt22

https://twitter.com/_TomCross_/status/1058388787909353478
ЦитироватьPegasus rocket on the belly of Stargazer, an old modified passenger jet. Sending a small science satellite into Earth's thermosphere to gather fresh data about the gasses that envelope our planet. Launching next week above the Atlantic Ocean. #NASAICON

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9:02 - 2 нояб. 2018 г.