NROL-55 – Atlas V 401 (AV-058) – Vandenberg SLC-3E – 08.10.2015 12:49 UTC

[che wi]

[Безумный Шляпник]

http://nro.gov/WhatsNew/GRACE_CubeSat_FactSheet.pdf

[che wi]

Atlas V to Launch NROL-55
http://www.ulalaunch.com/atlas-v-to-launch-nrol55.aspx

Rocket/Payload:  A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 will launch the NROL-55 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

Date/Site/Launch Time: Thursday, Oct. 8 2015, from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Launch Notes: NROL-55 will be the 58th Atlas V mission since the vehicle's inaugural launch in 2002. The mission is ULA's 10th of 2015 and 101st since the company was founded in December 2006.

Mission Description: The mission will be launched for the National Reconnaissance Office in support of national defense.

Thirteen CubeSats also will launch aboard the Atlas V aboard the NRO's Government Rideshare Advanced Concepts Experiment (GRACE) auxiliary payload. Nine of the CubeSats are sponsored by the NRO, and four are sponsored by NASA. The GRACE payloads will be delivered to space on the Aft Bulkhead Carrier, located on the rear of the Centaur upper stage.

[che wi]

[Безумный Шляпник]

Это типа кузнец Вакула? :-)

[che wi]

Intel-gathering spacecraft launch on Atlas 5 scheduled for Thursday
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/10/06/intel-gathering-spacecraft-launch-on-atlas-5-scheduled-for-thursday/

CAPE CANAVERAL — Poised for its one and only satellite launch of the year, the National Reconnaissance Office will conduct a hush-hush flight Thursday, Oct. 8 using a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket fr om California.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 3-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base is targeted for 5:49 a.m. local (8:49 a.m. EDT; 1249 GMT). The length of the actual launch opportunity was not released.

Officials previously disclosed that launch would be possible some time between 4:45 and 6:30 a.m. local time (7:45-9:30 a.m. EDT; 1145-1330 GMT). Weather forecasters predict a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions.

The National Reconnaissance Office is the secretive government agency responsible for the country's fleet of spy satellites. This launch is known as NROL-55.

Спойлер

The flight comes just six days after the most recent Atlas launch from Cape Canaveral and will be the second of three flights planned this month. The Mexican Morelos 3 telecommunications satellite was launched Oct. 2 and the Air Force's Global Positioning System 2F-11 navigation spacecraft is scheduled for flight on Oct. 30. hat's more, United Launch Alliance marked its 100th successful flight with the Morelos 3 mission last week.

"I'm so proud of my guys, oh my gosh. One hundred launches in a row. It is an unprecedented record, It is a tribute to the fleet of rockets and hard work of our people that think about mission success," said Tory Bruno, the president and CEO of United Launch Alliance. "The satellites we put up are always an important piece of someone's mission, whether it's national security to keep us safe or whether it's a commercial mission wh ere a tremendous investment has gone in, people have spent years putting the spacecraft together with capabilities to make the world a smaller place."

[свернуть]

Thursday's launch is expected to follow a "coast-hugger" trajectory to the south as the rocket likely hauls two formation-flying naval reconnaissance satellites into a 700-mile-high orbit tilted 63 degrees to the equator. Satellite-tracking hobbyists believe the mission will carry a satellite pair for the NRO, just like two previous Atlas 5s from Vandenberg, to further refresh the orbiting network commonly referred to as the Naval Ocean Surveillance System, or NOSS.

"NOSS satellites track ships at sea through their radio transmissions," said Ted Molczan, a respected monitor of spacecraft. "The first two generations, launched between 1976 and 1996, consisted of triplets that orbited in close formation. Analysis of the difference in time of arrival of a signal at each member of a triplet enabled determination of the location of the source. The third generation NOSS accomplish the same using pairs of satellites."

This launch is expected to be the seventh for the current breed of NOSS featuring satellite duos instead of the previous triplet arrangement. It is unofficially dubbed NOSS 3-7. Atlas rockets have deployed this generation beginning with two missions from Vandenberg that went up in 2001 and 2003 aboard Atlas 2AS vehicles, then two flights from Cape Canaveral that flew on the Atlas 3B in 2005 and an Atlas 5 in 2007, and two Vandenberg missions using Atlas 5s in 2011 and 2012. It is suspected that the latest duo will replace the aging NOSS 3-3 satellites launched into the constellation a decade ago aboard the Atlas 3B rocket.

"I believe that the nominal spacecraft life is 8-10 years, limited in part by orbital perturbations," Molczan said. Two older NOSS pairs — NOSS 3-1 and 3-2 — were replaced by the 2011 and 2012 launches and broke apart from their formations 7-8 months after successful launches of the successors, Molczan noted.

Also hitching a ride to orbit with NOSS will be 13 tiny technology Cubesats — 9 sponsored by the NRO and 4 sponsored by NASA — as part of the Government Rideshare Advanced Concepts Experiment, or GRACE.

NRO-sponsored Cubesats:

*AeroCube-5c and AeroCube-7 — technology pathfinders from Aerospace Corp. that weigh 1.5 kilograms each and will demonstrate tracking technologies, optical communications and laser communication.

*SNaP-3 — A total of three CubeSats, weighing 4.5 kilogram each, from the Army's Space and Missile Defense Center, whose mission is to develop user software-defined radios to provide beyond-line-of-sight communication for disadvantaged users in remote locations.

*PropCube — Two 1-kilogram CubeSat from Tyvak performing dual frequency ionospheric calibration measurements.

*SINOD-D — Two 2-kilogram CubeSats from SRI International demonstrating software defined radio communications.

NASA-sponsored Cubesats:

*ARC-1 (Alaska Research CubeSat 1) — 1-kilogram CubeSat developed by the University of Alaska-Fairbanks whose mission is to measure thermal and vibration environment during launch, and increase the Technology Readiness Level on both their attitude control and determination system, as well as, the high bandwidth communication system.

*BisonSat — 1-kilogram CubeSat from Salish Kootenai College whose mission is to train students on the design, construction, test, and operation of space hardware by using a specially designed light camera to calculate and test land cover classification, cloud cover, and cloud height measurements.

*AMSAT Fox-1 — 1-kilogram CubeSat features an amateur radio FM voice repeater that will provide easy portable satellite communications opportunities for amateur radio operators worldwide. The satellite will also test a MEMS Gyro and a low energy proton experiment.

*LMRST-Sat (Low Mass Radio Science Transponder – Satellite) — 3-kilogram CubeSat from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory which will demonstrate the Low Mass Radio Transponder in earth orbit to raise its Technology Readiness Level.

The Atlas 5 rocket has flown 57 times since debuting in 2002 and performed 11 launches for the National Reconnaissance Office since 2007. It is ULA's 101st launch and 20th for the NRO.

For the NROL-55 mission, the rocket is operating for the 28th time in its basic 401 configuration with the kerosene-fueled main stage for 860,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff and the hydrogen-fed, single-engine Centaur upper stage to shape the satellites' orbit. The payload is encapsulated in a 14-foot-diameter nose cone for atmospheric ascent.

The launch countdown begins about eight hours before liftoff. Rollback of the mobile service gantry at Space Launch Complex 3-East occurs five hours prior to flight, followed by the start of fueling with two hours to go. A final hold is scheduled when clocks hit the T-minus 4 minute mark. That will give the team a chance to finish any late work and assess the status of the rocket, payload, Range and weather before proceeding into the last moments of the countdown.

[Брабонт]

NROL-55 search elements

The primary payload is the NOSS 3-7 pair of satellites, which will replace the NOSS 3-3 pair launched in 2005. I base
this on a well-established pattern.

NOSS 3-5, launched on 2011 Apr 15, replaced the NOSS 3-1 pair, which ceased to orbit in formation about 7 months later, shortly after 2011 Nov 07. They had been in orbit just over 10 years. The plane of NOSS 3-5 is about 22 deg west of the NOSS 3-1 plane.

NOSS 3-6, launched on 2012 Sep 13, replaced the NOSS 3-2 pair, which ceased to orbit in formation about 8 months later, shortly after 2013 May 21. They had been in orbit about 9.5 years. The plane of NOSS 3-6 is about 15 deg west of the NOSS 3-2 plane.

NOSS 3-3 was launched in February 2005. Assuming the pair cease to orbit in formation 7-8 months after NOSS 3-7 reaches orbit, they will have operated for about 11 years. The plane of NOSS 3-7 will be about 30 deg west of the NOSS 3-3 plane.

NROL-79, slated for launch from VAFB in August 2017, is likely to carry NOSS 3-8, which would replace NOSS 3-4, launched in June 2007. 

Here are estimated initial NOSS 3-7 elements, assuming launch at window open:

NOSS 3-7                                               1013 X 1200 km
1 79701U          15281.61469908  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    07
2 79701  63.4283 292.5778 0124892 180.5274 352.9095 13.40429195    06

Centaur final orbit                                      459 X 775 km
1 79702U          15281.65902778  .00000000  00000-0  00000-0 0    09
2 79702  64.6863 291.3514 0225821 294.8437 113.6381 14.83391172    04

The above are derived from the NOSS 3-6 launch. Twenty-four hours after launch, allow for at least several minutes time error, and several degrees of track error on high elevation passes.

In the northern hemisphere, the NOSS orbit will be well-placed for all night observation. Southern hemisphere observers will have evening visibility, but near twilight.

Ted Molczan

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/10/07/av058-journal/

[Salo]

Пуск 8 октября в 15:49 ДМВ.

[Salo]

http://www.nro.gov/WhatsNew/GRACE_CubeSat_FactSheet.pdf

[che wi]

[che wi]

1:00 a.m. local (0800 GMT)
Rollback of the launch pad's service gantry is underway. This is a major milestone in today's countdown, getting the mobile tower retracted to uncover the Atlas 5 rocket.
The structure's internal crane was instrumental in bringing the rocket stages and payload together. And now the fully assembled Atlas 5 has been unveiled for its 51st launch, the 10th to originate from Vandenberg.

12:46 a.m. local (0746 GMT)
A readiness poll of the team has verified all systems are GO for retraction of the gantry.

12:00 a.m. local (0700 GMT)
Officials just received an updated weather forecast. There are no constraints to proceeding with mobile service tower rollback. Weather remains 70 percent GO for launch time.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/10/07/av058-journal/

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Включили трансляцию
http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv
http://www.ulalaunch.com/webcast.aspx
http://original.livestream.com/spaceflightnow

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- The 640th launch for Atlas program since 1957
- The 295th Atlas launch from Vandenberg AFB since 1959
- The 44th Atlas to use Space Launch Complex 3
- The 11th Atlas 5 launch from Vandenberg AFB since 2008
- The 229th mission of a Centaur upper stage
- The 206th use of Centaur by an Atlas rocket
- The 462nd production RL10 engine to be launched
- The 7th RL10C-1 engine launched
- The 64th flight of the RD-180 main engine
- The 58th launch of an Atlas 5 since 2002
- The 12th National Reconnaissance Office use of Atlas 5
- The 88th Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle flight
- The 101st United Launch Alliance flight overall
- The 50th Atlas 5 under United Launch Alliance
- The 38th 400-series flight of the Atlas 5
- The 28th Atlas 5 to fly in the 401 configuration
- The 7th Atlas 5 launch of 2015

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/10/07/av058-journal/

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Отделение 1-й ст., сброс обтекателя.

[OlegIn]

Ушла.
РД-180 отработал штатно. Хорошо.

[Space Alien]

[che wi]

ULAVerified account ‏@ulalaunch  1m ago

#NROL55 successfully away! #GRACECubeSats still on their way to space.