NuSTAR = Pegasus-XL - 13.06.12 20:00:42 ЛМВ - Kwajalein

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NASA's NuSTAR Gearing up for Launch

Final pre-launch preparations are underway for NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. The mission, which will use X-ray vision to hunt for hidden black holes, is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 13 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The observatory will launch from the belly of Orbital Sciences Corporation's L-1011 "Stargazer" aircraft aboard the company's Pegasus rocket.

Technicians at Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California are busy installing the rocket's fairing, or nose cone, around the observatory. A flight computer software evaluation is also nearing completion and should be finished before the Flight Readiness Review, which is scheduled for June 1. A successful launch simulation of the Orbital Sciences' Pegasus XL rocket was conducted last week.

The mission plan is for NuSTAR and its rocket to be attached to the Stargazer plane on June 2. The aircraft will depart California on June 5 and arrive at the Kwajalein launch site on June 6. The launch of NuSTAR from the plane is targeted for 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT) on June 13.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar .

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-142

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Black-Hole Hunter

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NASA to Hold News Conference About Nustar Launch

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA will hold a news conference on Wednesday, May 30 at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) to discuss the upcoming launch of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), a mission to hunt for black holes. The event will be held at NASA Headquarters in Washington and will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website. In addition, the event will be carried live on Ustream, with a moderated chat available, at http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 . Questions may be asked via Twitter using the hashtag #asknasa.

NuSTAR will observe some of the hottest, densest and most energetic objects in the universe, including black holes, their high-speed particle jets, ultra-dense neutron stars, supernova remnants and our sun. It will observe high-energy X-rays with much greater sensitivity and clarity than any mission flown to date. Among its several goals, NuSTAR will address the puzzle of how black holes and galaxies evolve together over time.

NuSTAR is scheduled to launch no earlier than 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT) on June 13 from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The spacecraft will lift off on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL launch vehicle, released from an aircraft flying south of Kwajalein.

News conference participants are:

-- Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington
-- Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
-- Daniel Stern, NuSTAR project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena
-- Yunjin Kim, NuSTAR project manager at JPL

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/news/nustar20120524.html

[Salo]

Предстартовый брифинг по NuSTAR:
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7620

[Salo]

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/may/HQ_12-177_NuSTAR_LBriefing.html

RELEASE : 12-177
 
NASA Preparing to Launch Its Newest X-ray Eyes
 
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is being prepared for the final journey to its launch pad on Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. The mission will study everything from massive black holes to our own sun. It is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 13.

"We will see the hottest, densest and most energetic objects with a fundamentally new high-energy X-ray telescope that can obtain much deeper and crisper images than before," said Fiona Harrison, the NuSTAR principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calif., who first conceived of the mission 20 years ago.

The observatory is perched atop an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket. If the mission passes its Flight Readiness Review on June 1, the rocket will be strapped to the bottom of an aircraft, the L-1011 Stargazer, also operated by Orbital, on June 2. The Stargazer is scheduled to fly from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California to Kwajalein June 5-6.

On launch day, the Stargazer will take off and at around 11:30 a.m. EDT (8:30 a.m. PDT) will drop the rocket, which will then ignite and carry NuSTAR to a low orbit around Earth.

"NuSTAR uses several innovations for its unprecedented imaging capability and was made possible by many partners," said Yunjin Kim, the project manager for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "We're all really excited to see the fruition of our work begin its mission in space."

NuSTAR will be the first space telescope to create focused images of cosmic X-rays with the highest energies. These are the same types of X-rays that doctors use to see your bones and airports use to scan your bags. The telescope will have more than 10 times the resolution, and more than 100 times the sensitivity, of its predecessors while operating in a similar energy range.

The mission will work with other telescopes in space now, including NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which observes lower-energy X-rays. Together, they will provide a more complete picture of the most energetic and exotic objects in space, such as black holes, dead stars and jets traveling near the speed of light.

"NuSTAR truly demonstrates the value that NASA's research and development programs provide in advancing the nation's science agenda," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics Division director. "Taking just over four years from receiving the project go-ahead to launch, this low-cost Explorer mission will use new mirror and detector technology that was developed in NASA's basic research program and tested in NASA's scientific ballooning program. The result of these modest investments is a small space telescope that will provide world-class science in an important but relatively unexplored band of the electromagnetic spectrum."

NuSTAR will study black holes that are big and small, far and near, answering questions about the formation and physics behind these wonders of the cosmos. The observatory will also investigate how exploding stars forge the elements that make up planets and people, and it will even study our own sun's atmosphere.

The observatory is able to focus the high-energy X-ray light into sharp images because of a complex, innovative telescope design. High-energy light is difficult to focus because it only reflects off mirrors when hitting at nearly parallel angles. NuSTAR solves this problem with nested shells of mirrors. It has the most nested shells ever used in a space telescope, 133 in each of two optic units. The mirrors were molded from ultra-thin glass similar to that found in laptop screens and glazed with even thinner layers of reflective coating.

The telescope also consists of state-of-the-art detectors and a lengthy 33-foot (10-meter) mast, which connects the detectors to the nested mirrors, providing the long distance required to focus the X-rays. This mast is folded up into a canister small enough to fit atop the Pegasus launch vehicle. It will unfurl about seven days after launch. About 23 days later, science operations will begin.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by Caltech and managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley); Columbia University in New York; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems in Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.

For more information, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/nustar[/size]

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NASA Preparing to Launch its Newest X-Ray Eyes
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/news/nustar20120530.html

Видео: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=142531021



NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has a complex set of mirrors, or optics, that will help it see high-energy X-ray light in greater detail than ever before. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech



This image comparison demonstrates NuSTAR's improved ability to focus high-energy X-ray light into sharp images. Image credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech

[Seerndv]

ВАШИНГТОН, 31 мая. /Корр. ИТАР-ТАСС Иван Лебедев/. Наблюдение за самыми загадочными объектами во Вселенной, в том числе черными дырами и сверхновыми звездами, будет вести американский космический аппарат, получивший название Ядерный спектроскопический телескоп /NuSTAR/. Как сообщило в среду Управление по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства /НАСА/, он будет выведен на околоземную орбиту 13 июня и, как ожидается, проработает там не менее пяти лет.
 
НАСА надеется с помощью этого аппарата изучить взаимодействие черных дыр с галактиками, провести наблюдение за потоками элементарных частиц в космическом пространстве, расширить сведения об атмосфере и поверхности Солнца. "Благодаря фундаментально новому телескопу, работающему в рентгеновском диапазоне электромагнитного излучения, мы сможем получить гораздо более глубокие и четкие изображения наиболее раскаленных, плотных и заряженных энергией объектов", - сообщила на пресс- конференции одна из авторов этого проекта - сотрудник Калифорнийского технологического института Фиона Харрисон.
 
Уникальность Ядерного спектроскопического телескопа заключается в том, что он впервые будет вести наблюдение за космическими объектами, фиксируя исходящее от них жесткое рентгеновское излучение. Ряд нынешних аппаратов, в том числе американская орбитальная обсерватория "Чандра", работает только в мягком рентгеновском спектре. Кроме того, новый телескоп имеет разрешающую способность и чувствительность, соответственно, в 10 и 100 раз больше, чем его предшественники. Достигается это с помощью многочисленных зеркал и датчиков электромагнитных волн, установленных на 10-метровой мачте.
 
Телескоп будет выведен на орбиту с помощью носителя "Пегас". В отличие от обычных ракет этот аппарат стартует не с земли, а в воздухе. "Пегас" будет закреплен под фюзеляжем самолета "Эл-1011 Старгейзер", который поднимется в небо и сбросит его на высоте 12 км. Через пять секунд свободного падения включатся маршевые двигатели первой ступени ракеты-носителя. Запуск будет происходить в воздушном пространстве над ракетным полигоном на атолле Кваджалейн /Маршалловы острова/ в Тихом океане.
 
Разработала новый телескоп по заказу НАСА американская компания "Орбитал сайенсиз". Расходы на этот проект будут сравнительно небольшими - около 170 млн долларов. Ученые рассчитывают, что собранные данные послужат важным дополнением к информации, которую передают телескопы "Хаббл", "Спитцер" и "Чандра". Руководитель управления астрофизики НАСА Пол Хертц уверен, что новый уникальный аппарат позволит совершить немало интересных и неожиданных открытий. В то же время он наполовину в шутку, наполовину всерьез признался, что "даже если во Вселенной и есть какая- то другая разумная жизнь, то получить сигналы от внеземных цивилизаций с помощью NuSTAR вряд ли удастся".

http://www.itar-tass.com/c19/434529.html

[Salo]

ВАШИНГТОН, 31 мая. /Корр. ИТАР-ТАСС Иван Лебедев/. Наблюдение за самыми загадочными объектами во Вселенной, в том числе черными дырами и сверхновыми звездами, будет вести американский космический аппарат, получивший название Ядерный спектроскопический телескоп /NuSTAR/. Как сообщило в среду Управление по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства /НАСА/, он будет выведен на околоземную орбиту 13 июня и, как ожидается, проработает там не менее пяти лет.
 
НАСА надеется с помощью этого аппарата изучить взаимодействие черных дыр с галактиками, провести наблюдение за потоками элементарных частиц в космическом пространстве, расширить сведения об атмосфере и поверхности Солнца. "Благодаря фундаментально новому телескопу, работающему в рентгеновском диапазоне электромагнитного излучения, мы сможем получить гораздо более глубокие и четкие изображения наиболее раскаленных, плотных и заряженных энергией объектов", - сообщила на пресс- конференции одна из авторов этого проекта - сотрудник Калифорнийского технологического института Фиона Харрисон.
 
Уникальность Ядерного спектроскопического телескопа заключается в том, что он впервые будет вести наблюдение за космическими объектами, фиксируя исходящее от них жесткое рентгеновское излучение. Ряд нынешних аппаратов, в том числе американская орбитальная обсерватория "Чандра", работает только в мягком рентгеновском спектре. Кроме того, новый телескоп имеет разрешающую способность и чувствительность, соответственно, в 10 и 100 раз больше, чем его предшественники. Достигается это с помощью многочисленных зеркал и датчиков электромагнитных волн, установленных на 10-метровой мачте.
 
Телескоп будет выведен на орбиту с помощью носителя "Пегас". В отличие от обычных ракет этот аппарат стартует не с земли, а в воздухе. "Пегас" будет закреплен под фюзеляжем самолета "Эл-1011 Старгейзер", который поднимется в небо и сбросит его на высоте 12 км. Через пять секунд свободного падения включатся маршевые двигатели первой ступени ракеты-носителя. Запуск будет происходить в воздушном пространстве над ракетным полигоном на атолле Кваджалейн /Маршалловы острова/ в Тихом океане.
 
Разработала новый телескоп по заказу НАСА американская компания "Орбитал сайенсиз". Расходы на этот проект будут сравнительно небольшими - около 170 млн долларов. Ученые рассчитывают, что собранные данные послужат важным дополнением к информации, которую передают телескопы "Хаббл", "Спитцер" и "Чандра". Руководитель управления астрофизики НАСА Пол Хертц уверен, что новый уникальный аппарат позволит совершить немало интересных и неожиданных открытий. В то же время он наполовину в шутку, наполовину всерьез признался, что "даже если во Вселенной и есть какая- то другая разумная жизнь, то получить сигналы от внеземных цивилизаций с помощью NuSTAR вряд ли удастся".

http://www.itar-tass.com/c19/434529.html

[Salo]

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=945340#945340

[Ярослав]

ВАШИНГТОН, 31 мая. /Корр. ИТАР-ТАСС Иван Лебедев/. Наблюдение за самыми загадочными объектами во Вселенной, в том числе черными дырами и сверхновыми звездами, будет вести американский космический аппарат, получивший название Ядерный спектроскопический телескоп /NuSTAR/. Как сообщило в среду Управление по аэронавтике и исследованию космического пространства /НАСА/, он будет выведен на околоземную орбиту 13 июня и, как ожидается, проработает там не менее пяти лет.
 
НАСА надеется с помощью этого аппарата изучить взаимодействие черных дыр с галактиками, провести наблюдение за потоками элементарных частиц в космическом пространстве, расширить сведения об атмосфере и поверхности Солнца. "Благодаря фундаментально новому телескопу, работающему в рентгеновском диапазоне электромагнитного излучения, мы сможем получить гораздо более глубокие и четкие изображения наиболее раскаленных, плотных и заряженных энергией объектов", - сообщила на пресс- конференции одна из авторов этого проекта - сотрудник Калифорнийского технологического института Фиона Харрисон.
 
Уникальность Ядерного спектроскопического телескопа заключается в том, что он впервые будет вести наблюдение за космическими объектами, фиксируя исходящее от них жесткое рентгеновское излучение. Ряд нынешних аппаратов, в том числе американская орбитальная обсерватория "Чандра", работает только в мягком рентгеновском спектре. Кроме того, новый телескоп имеет разрешающую способность и чувствительность, соответственно, в 10 и 100 раз больше, чем его предшественники. Достигается это с помощью многочисленных зеркал и датчиков электромагнитных волн, установленных на 10-метровой мачте.
 
Телескоп будет выведен на орбиту с помощью носителя "Пегас". В отличие от обычных ракет этот аппарат стартует не с земли, а в воздухе. "Пегас" будет закреплен под фюзеляжем самолета "Эл-1011 Старгейзер", который поднимется в небо и сбросит его на высоте 12 км. Через пять секунд свободного падения включатся маршевые двигатели первой ступени ракеты-носителя. Запуск будет происходить в воздушном пространстве над ракетным полигоном на атолле Кваджалейн /Маршалловы острова/ в Тихом океане.
 
Разработала новый телескоп по заказу НАСА американская компания "Орбитал сайенсиз". Расходы на этот проект будут сравнительно небольшими - около 170 млн долларов. Ученые рассчитывают, что собранные данные послужат важным дополнением к информации, которую передают телескопы "Хаббл", "Спитцер" и "Чандра". Руководитель управления астрофизики НАСА Пол Хертц уверен, что новый уникальный аппарат позволит совершить немало интересных и неожиданных открытий. В то же время он наполовину в шутку, наполовину всерьез признался, что "даже если во Вселенной и есть какая- то другая разумная жизнь, то получить сигналы от внеземных цивилизаций с помощью NuSTAR вряд ли удастся".

http://www.itar-tass.com/c19/434529.html

про Пегас и этот спутник лучше сюда http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=945340&highlight=nustar#945340

тут ведь другой совсем носитель...

[Seerndv]

- это вклад в общую копилку Орбтала.
Или бабах на этом запуске добавит коммерческого успеха иму? :?

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http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=232

     

   

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/nustar/status.html

SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012

Loaded with an X-ray telescope payload for NASA, the winged Pegasus rocket left the assembly hangar and joined up with its L-1011 carrier aircraft Saturday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The Orbital Sciences booster will depart the West Coast on Tuesday for a two-day ferryflight to the Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the U.S. Army's vast missile range.

On launch day, currently targeted for June 13 (U.S. time), the carrier jet will haul the rocket to 39,000 feet and release it at 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT), allowing the three-stage Pegasus to propel the NuSTAR satellite into orbit.

The remote site was selected for the NuSTAR launch since the Pegasus will be aiming for an equatorial orbit, the type of perch that Kwajalein is well positioned to reach.

Weighing 772 pounds, the spacecraft is ideally sized for the Pegasus launch that will be making its 41st flight. Its heritage includes deploying over 70 satellites since 1990 for NASA, commercial customers and the U.S. military.

NuSTAR will extend a 33-foot-long boom once in its 373-mile-high orbit, providing the necessary separation between the spacecraft's optics and X-ray detectors.

The mission is the first space telescope that will provide scientists with "focused" X-ray images of objects in the universe emitting the highest energies, such as supermassive black holes, remnants of collapsed stars and gamma-ray sources. Researchers hope to catch a supernova explosion in our local neighborhood during the mission's two-to-five year life.

"We will see the hottest, densest and most energetic objects with a fundamentally new high-energy X-ray telescope that can obtain much deeper and crisper images than before," said Fiona Harrison, the NuSTAR principal investigator, who first conceived of the mission 20 years ago.

Pegasus and NuSTAR passed their Flight Readiness Review on Friday, clearing the way for the rocket's rollout to the L-1011 park site adjacent to Vandenberg's runway on Saturday. Combined systems testing between the duo will be conducted ahead of the takeoff.

NASA, Orbital and the Air Force will be hosting a tour of the rocket and L-1011 for reporters on Monday. We'll be there, so check back for photos, video and full coverage of the upcoming launch! [/size]

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27418.msg910382#msg910382

The rocket is being rolled under the L-1011 just now.

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NuSTAR Strapped to its Plane

June 04, 2012

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is now perched atop its Pegasus XL rocket, strapped to the plane that will carry the mission to an airborne launch. Launch is scheduled for June 13, no earlier than 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT).

The plane -- the L-1011 "Stargazer" aircraft -- is now at Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California. It is scheduled to fly to Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean from June 5 to 6. About an hour before launch, the plane will lift off from the island, and drop NuSTAR and its rocket over the ocean. The rocket will then ignite, carrying NuSTAR to its final orbit around Earth's equator.

NuSTAR will be the first space telescope to create sharp images of X-rays with high energies, similar to those used by doctors and dentists. It will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and extreme physics around collapsed stars.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.

Launch management and government oversight for the mission is the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar and http://www.nustar.caltech.edu/ .

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-152

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L-1011 and Pegasus tour at Vandenberg

A day before the L-1011 carrier aircraft will depart Vandenberg Air Force Base to ferry the Orbital Sciences air-launched Pegasus rocket and its NASA X-ray space telescope to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, reporters got a tour of the jet and rocket at the "hot pad" staging area adjacent to the runway.

See our Mission Status Center for the latest news on the launch.

Photo credit: Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/nustar/tour/

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http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm

The Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket with its NuSTAR spacecraft after attachment to the L-1011 carrier aircraft known as "Stargazer." The Pegasus will launch NuSTAR into space where the high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars

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http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/nustar/takeoff/

Pegasus rocket sets sail to launch NASA telescope[/size]
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: June 5, 2012

Slung beneath the belly of its L-1011 carrier jet, a three-stage Pegasus XL rocket and its NASA space telescope payload flew away from Vandenberg Air Force Base Tuesday afternoon en route to a distant atoll in the equatorial Pacific where the launch will originate next week.


The L-1011 takes off from Vandenberg. Credit: Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now
 
The fully assembled rocket left its home port at 12:58 p.m. local (3:58 p.m. EDT; 1958 GMT) destined for the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, part of the U.S. Army's vast missile range in the central Pacific Ocean.

"This is the only air-launched vehicle in the world for small satellites so it really is a special airplane and a special rocket," said Bryan Baldwin, the long-time manager of the Pegasus program at Orbital Sciences.

The "Stargazer" jet was wheels-up from Vandenberg's three-mile-long concrete Runway 30 under the control of veteran L-1011 pilot Bill Weaver, beginning the 4,700-mile trip that includes an overnight stop at Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii.

Equipment to provide conditioned air to the rocket has been pre-staged in Hawaii for quick hookup to the rocket once it gets there.

The aircraft crew said Tuesday's leg would take nearly five hours and Wednesday's would last about six hours as they use the inbound flight to practice the carrier jet's flight course and test the telemetry communication links between the rocket and range before landing.

The rocket will be powered throughout the ferryflight so engineers stationed aboard the aircraft can monitor Pegasus systems and its state of health.

Arrival at Kwajalein will kick off several days of final tests, rehearsals and reviews before the June 13 (U.S. time) launch to deliver NASA's NuSTAR X-ray space observatory into orbit around Earth on a $180 million mission to seek out black holes.


An artist's concept of NuSTAR in space with its boom deployed between the telescope optics and X-ray detectors. Credit: NASA
 
The far-away locale is ideally positioned to place the satellite into a 373-mile-high orbit that hugs the equator, going no further north or south than 6 degrees latitude. The atoll is halfway between Hawaii and Australia.

Launch was slated to occur in March, but officials ordered a standdown to complete the validation of enhanced software in the Pegasus' next-generation flight computer. Waiting for the next available launch opportunity at Kwajalein then drove the mission to June.

Assembly and testing of the Pegasus vehicle was conducted in Building 1555 at Vandenberg, a large hangar with picturesque views of the Pacific and launch pads used by current Atlas and future Falcon rockets.

NuSTAR arrived at Vandenberg on January 27 after a cross-country ride from Orbital Sciences' satellite production facility in Virginia, and was offload into a tented enclosure next to Pegasus for final checks, illumination testing of its solar array, flight simulations, mounting onto the rocket's third stage and installation of the two-piece nose cone around the satellite.

The finished product -- a 51,000-pound rocket with its iconic wing, rudder and fins -- was rolled out Saturday morning for the 3.8-mile drive to Vandenberg's runway to join the L-1011. The carrier jet, which is stored in Mojave, California, flew in last week to pick up Pegasus.

The aircraft was jacked up, allowing the trailer hauling the rocket to slide underneath. Ground crews hoisted Pegasus and firmly engaged five hooks to lock the 55-foot-long booster onto the L-1011 later that same day.

"Processing on the rocket has gone very well," said Baldwin. "The rocket mated up very well, no real issues."

A comprehensive combined systems test between all of the elements was run Sunday and the aircraft was fueled Monday ahead of the ferryflight departure.


Pegasus mounted to the L-1011. Credit: Justin Ray/Spaceflight Now
See photo gallery
 
"Stargazer" is flying this mission with three new, fuel-efficient engines on the Lockheed TriStar aircraft originally built in the 1960s and purchased from Air Canada for conversion into the Pegasus launcher.

The first leg of the journey to Kwajalein takes the team to Honolulu for refueling and sleep Tuesday night. A separate jet with most of the launch crew left Vandenberg an hour before the Pegasus, flying weather reconnaissance out in front of the L-1011.

About 80 people from NASA, Orbital Sciences and the other mission partners are traveling to the remote launch site to support.

The planned launch time next Wednesday, June 13 is 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT), the opening of a four-hour window extending to 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT).

Backup launch opportunities are possible the following two days, if needed, plus the potential for two more, Baldwin said. After that, it could be November before another slot opens up at Kwajalein.

"It looks like we got about five days (next week). We've never needed that many days before (to get a launch off)," Baldwin added. "But launch availability after those five days is challenging...But you know how the rocket business goes. Things get moved around and spots could open up."

About an hour before the launch time, the L-1011 will take off from the Kwajalein runway, manned in the cockpit by the pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer, plus a pair of launch team members working at consoles where first class would be located aboard the aircraft.

The intended drop point is located 150 miles south of the runway, 39,000 feet above the Pacific. With the Orbital launch conductor's approval from the control room back at the atoll, co-pilt Ebb Harris will flip the arm switch and then push the release button to cast the rocket free while traveling at Mach 0.8.

After falling for five seconds, the first stage will ignite to begin the 13-minute climb to orbit.

"We've had some great launches and hope this will be another in a string of fully successful missions," said Baldwin.

Pegasus has launched more than 70 satellites since 1990 and racked up 26 consecutive successful launches over the past 15 years.[/size]

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http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/nustar/status.html

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2012
The L-1011 safely landed in Hawaii last night, completing the first leg of its two-day ferryflight from California to the Kwajalein Atoll that will stretch over 4,000 miles. A NASA spokesperson says the trip will resume at 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) today.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/nustar/takeoffgallery/

     

   

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NASA to Host News Teleconference About NuSTAR Launch

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will host a news teleconference at noon PDT (3 p.m. EDT) June 11 to discuss the upcoming launch of its Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observatory, scheduled for no earlier than 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT) June 13.

The observatory, a black-hole hunter with sharp X-ray eyes, will be launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. NuSTAR is attached to an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket, which is mounted on the bottom of an L-1011 Stargazer aircraft. The airplane will take off from the atoll and release the rocket, which will ignite its engines in the air. The Stargazer plane departed Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California on June 5 and will land at Kwajalein today, June 6.

Panelists include:

-- Omar Baez, NASA launch director, Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
-- Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
-- William Craig, NuSTAR instrument manager, University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley)
-- Grace Baird, NuSTAR bus chief engineer, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va.

The news teleconference will take place at the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley. Graphics presented during the teleconference will be online shortly before the event begins, at http://1.usa.gov/nustar .

Live audio of the teleconference will be available at http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio .

On June 13, launch coverage and commentary will be broadcast online beginning 90 minutes before launch at http://www.nasa.gov/nustar .

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-157b