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

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Взлёт!

 Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 50 сек. назад

Takeoff!  #Stargazer is airborne and headed to the drop site for tonight's #Pegasus launch of #ICON for #NASA. @northropgrumman

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10/11/2019 03:35 Stephen Clark

The L-1011 "Stargazer" carrier aircraft with the Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket has departed Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida for this evening's launch of NASA's ICON mission. The booster will be released from the jet over the Atlantic Ocean around 9:30 p.m. EDT to propel the Ionospheric Connection Explorer into a 357-mile-high (575-kilometer) orbit.

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NASA_LSP‏ @NASA_LSP 6 мин. назад

The L-1011 Stargazer , #PegasusXL & #NASAICON will now fly for about 1 hour to an altitude of ~41,300 ft, ~50 miles offshore of Daytona Beach, over the Atlantic Ocean. The rocket will then be manually dropped for launch when everyone is "GO" at about 9:30pm EDT.

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10/11/2019 03:42 Stephen Clark

T-minus 48 minutes and counting. Stargazer is following a predetermined course commonly called "the race track" patten to reach the precise point where the Pegasus can be released for launch. This ferry flight lasts about an hour, flying east from Cape Canaveral, making a U-turn and then coming back around to launch the rocket toward the east.

Unlike some previous Pegasus missions, there is no chase plane assigned to tonight's launch, which will occur in darkness over the Atlantic Ocean.

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10/11/2019 03:45 Stephen Clark

This launch originates from the belly of the L-1011, named Stargazer. Originally delivered to Air Canada in March 1974, it was purchased by Orbital ATK in 1992 and modified as the Pegasus launch platform.

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NASA_LSP‏ @NASA_LSP 48 сек. назад

Photos of takeoff of the @northropgrumman L-1011 Stargazer , #PegasusXL & #NASAICON

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ICON: Takeoff of L-1011 Stargazer Aircraft

 NASAKennedy

10 окт. 2019 г.

The Northrop Grumman L-1011 Stargazer aircraft takes off fr om Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying the Pegasus XL rocket that contains NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON). ICON will study the frontier of space - the dynamic zone high in Earth's atmosphere wh ere terrestrial weather from below meets space weather above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJj0w_rJfX8https://www.youtube.com/embed/VJj0w_rJfX8 (1:01)

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10/11/2019 04:00 Stephen Clark

The L-1011 carrier jet is now executing a 180-degree turn to head back toward the Florida coast. The aircraft will fly through the Pegasus drop box to measure turbulence, winds and other conditions, before turning back around toward the east to begin the launch run.


10/11/2019 04:00 Stephen Clark

Now 30 minutes from the planned launch time. Today marks the 44th flight of the air-launched Pegasus rocket and the 34th using the XL version. The rocket weighs nearly 53,000 pounds, stretches 57 feet long and is comprised of three solid-fueled stages for boosting small satellites into space.

The first stage is 33.7 feet long, 4.2 feet in diameter, has a wingspan of 22 feet and produces 163,000 pounds of thrust. The second stage is 4.2 feet long and 4.2 feet wide for 44,000 pounds of thrust. The third stage is 4.4 feet long and 3.2 feet in diameter with a thrust of 8,000 pounds.


10/11/2019 04:02 Stephen Clark

The drop box is located around 108 miles east-northeast of Cape Canaveral. At the time of the release, the L-1011 aircraft will be flying at an altitude of 39,000 feet, an airspeed of Mach 0.82, on a magnetic heading of 113 degrees.

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 William Harwood‏ @cbs_spacenews 4 мин. назад

PegasusXL/ICON: NASA says the Pegasus XL drop altitude will be 41,300 feet above the Atlantic Ocean about 50 miles east of Daytona Beach

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10/11/2019 04:29 Stephen Clark

T-minus 90 seconds. The L-1011 is adjusting its course to acquire the proper magnetic heading of 113 degrees. One of the key duties of the aircraft crew is releasing Pegasus on the correct trajectory so that the rocket doesn't have to perform any abrupt steering after ignition.

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10/11/2019 04:31 Stephen Clark

ABORT.

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10/11/2019 04:31 Stephen Clark

The Pegasus release was aborted after problems with the voice communications link between ground controllers at Cape Canaveral and the flight crew on the L-1011 carrier aircraft.

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William Harwood‏ @cbs_spacenews 2 мин. назад

PegasusXL/ICON: The launch team has called off this initial launch attempt, apparently because of a communications glitch between the L-1011 Stargazer carrier jet and flight controllers; not yet clear if the team can make a second attempt later in the window