ICESat-II, ELaNa-XVIII: ELFIN, IT-SPINS, CHEFsat - Delta II 7420-10C - Vandenberg SLC-2W -15.09.2018

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NASA's ICESat-2 Separates from Upper Stage

NASAKennedy

Опубликовано: 15 сент. 2018 г.

A camera on the upper stage shows NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) as it is deployed into orbit above the Earth. Immediately following separation, agency and industry managers celebrate the successful launch.

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Jonathan McDowell‏Подлинная учетная запись @planet4589 32 мин. назад

ELFIN deployed from the Delta at 1418 UTC. A 3U cubesat to study ionospheric electrons, from UCLA


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ELFIN-B (aka ELFIN-STAR) deployed at 1420 UTC


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CalPoly's DAVE and UCF's Surface Charging Satellite released at 1421 UTC

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Interview with NASA Launch Director

NASAKennedy

Опубликовано: 15 сент. 2018 г.

Following the successful liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket orbiting NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), Launch Director Tim Dunn speaks with Joshua Santora of NASA Communications and Mic Woltman, a Launch Services Program engineer.

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ICESat-2 Spacecraft Healthy after Arriving in Orbit



NASA's ICESat-2 spacecraft deployed its four solar panels and is drawing power, indicating it is healthy upon its arrival in orbit. The spacecraft launched on the final flight of the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket, lifting off from Space Launch Complex-2 at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 6:02 a.m. PDT (9:02 a.m. EDT).
Ground stations in Svalbard, Norway, have acquired signals from the spacecraft. It is performing as expected and orbiting the globe, pole to pole, at 17,069 mph from an average altitude of 290 miles.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/icesat2/2018/09/15/icesat-2-spacecraft-healthy-after-arriving-in-orbit/

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Tory Bruno‏Подлинная учетная запись @torybruno 6 мин. назад

130

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NASA‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASA 11 мин. назад

Lifting off at 9:02am ET Saturday atop a @ULALaunch #DeltaII rocket, @NASA_ICE's #ICESat2 is safely on orbit and ready to embark on its mission to measure the ice of Earth's frozen reaches with unprecedented accuracy. Learn more: https://go.nasa.gov/2MyquF9 

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09/15/2018 17:36 Stephen Clark

One more burn by the second stage's AJ10 engine is planned at 7:52 a.m. PDT (10:52 a.m. EDT; 1452 GMT). The braking maneuver will last around 37 seconds, steering the rocket back into Earth's atmosphere for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.

Any small debris from the second stage that survives the fiery re-entry will impact in the remote Pacific Ocean at 8:12 a.m. PDT (11:12 a.m. EDT; 1512 GMT).

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https://www.ulalaunch.com/about/news-detail/2018/09/15/united-launch-alliance-selects-nasa-s-kennedy-space-center-visitor-complex-as-the-future-home-of-the-last-delta-ii-rocket

United Launch Alliance Selects NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as the Future Home of the Last Delta II Rocket

Centennial, Colo., Sept. 15, 2018 – United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced today that the last Delta II rocket will join a lineup of historic rockets in the Rocket Garden on display at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

"The Delta II rocket has been a venerable workhorse for NASA and civilian scientists, the U.S. military, and commercial clients throughout its almost 30 years of service," said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO. "This program comes to a close with the final launch of NASA's ICESat-2, but its legacy will continue and the Visitor Complex will help us keep the story of the success of this much-revered rocket in the hearts and minds of the public."

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The maiden Delta II took flight on Valentine's Day in 1989, successfully delivering the first operational GPS satellite into space. Since that first launch, Delta II rockets have launched 154 successful missions. Its resume includes several trips to Mars as well as the planet-hunting Kepler, the twin lunar-orbiting GRAIL spacecraft, 48 GPS satellites and numerous commercial imaging and communications satellites.

With more than a century of combined heritage, United Launch Alliance is the nation's most experienced and reliable launch service provider. ULA has successfully delivered more than 125 satellites to orbit that provide critical capabilities for troops in the field, aid meteorologists in tracking severe weather, enable personal device-based GPS navigation and unlock the mysteries of our solar system.

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09/15/2018 18:36 Stephen Clark

NASA has confirmed the power-generating solar array on the ICESat 2 satellite has fully deployed to begin charging the spacecraft's batteries. This is a major step in the satellite's post-launch activation and commissioning phase.

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ULA‏Подлинная учетная запись @ulalaunch 34 мин.

Check out this and other amazing photos of today's #DeltaII #ICESat2 mission in our Flickr album

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmm8NzF7 

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https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/releases/northrop-grumman-built-icesat-2-spacecraft-successfully-launched-by-united-launch-alliance-for-nasa

Advanced technologies from Northrop Grumman support launch of ULA's Delta II rocket and deployment of NASA's satellite

September 15, 2018

DULLES, Va. – Sept. 15, 2018 – Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) today announced the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation spacecraft (ICESat-2), built by the company for NASA, successfully launched aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. In addition to manufacturing the spacecraft, Northrop Grumman also provided propulsion, key composite structures, a space navigation system and other components on the Delta II launch vehicle. This event marks the final launch of the Delta II rocket.

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NASA's ICESat-2 satellite built by Northrop Grumman successfully launched September 15, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

ICESat-2 will provide precise measurements of the changing height of Earth's glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice. The satellite is carrying the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS), built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which will measure the height of a changing Earth one laser pulse at a time. The instrument will enable scientists to measure the topography of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets in unprecedented detail. With 10,000 laser pulses per second, the fast-shooting laser technology allows ATLAS to take measurements every 28 inches along the satellite's path.

"ICESat-2 demonstrates the company's expertise in delivering high-quality Earth science satellites that help scientists gain a better understanding of the changes that can affect the planet's frozen and icy areas," said Steve Krein, vice president, science, environmental and weather programs, Northrop Grumman. "As a key focus of NASA's Earth science research, ICESat-2 paves the way for scientific discoveries that will yield new data on the potential effects of a changing Earth."

Northrop Grumman designed and manufactured the ICESat-2 spacecraft at its Gilbert, Arizona, satellite manufacturing facility and will provide mission operations at its Dulles, Virginia, site. The company built the satellite on its flight-proven LEOStar-3™ platform, which will be also used for the upcoming Landsat-9 and JPSS spacecraft. Company facilities in California and Maryland provided numerous subsystems, including the satellite's diaphragm propellant tank, pressurant tank, solar arrays and heat pipes for two components on the spacecraft. Northrop Grumman also supplied its Scalable Space Inertial Reference Unit (Scalable SIRU™) navigation system for the satellite to enable spacecraft attitude control and sensor pointing/stabilization. The Scalable SIRU is the industry standard for high-precision, long-life attitude control solutions supporting commercial, government and civil space missions.

Northrop Grumman also manufactured the Delta II rocket's four Graphite Epoxy Motors 40 (GEM 40), which provided an additional 460,000 pounds of maximum thrust during today's launch. Northrop Grumman has been supplying solid propulsion motors to ULA and its predecessor companies for a variety of launch vehicles since 1964 and is ULA's largest legacy supplier of solid propulsion.

"As the Delta II program finishes its long, successful run, we note that 1,003 GEM 40 strap-on boosters have helped launch 132 Delta II missions, including today's," said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager, propulsion systems, Northrop Grumman. "The Delta II rocket enjoys the longest consecutive success record in commercial rocket motor history."

Northrop Grumman manufactured the GEM 40 motors in Utah, the Delta II rocket's 10-foot diameter composite fairing in Mississippi and the rocket's second stage helium and nitrogen pressurization bottles in California.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, space, strike, and logistics and modernization to customers worldwide. Please visit news.northropgrumman.com and follow us on Twitter, @NGCNews, for more information.

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https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-ula-launch-mission-to-track-earths-changing-ice

Sept. 15, 2018
RELEASE 18-078

NASA, ULA Launch Mission to Track Earth's Changing Ice

NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) successfully launched fr om California at 9:02 a.m. EDT Saturday, embarking on its mission to measure the ice of Earth's frozen reaches with unprecedented accuracy.

ICESat-2 lifted off from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base on United Launch Alliance's final Delta II rocket. Ground stations in Svalbard, Norway, acquired signals from the spacecraft about 75 minutes after launch. It's performing as expected and orbiting the globe, from pole to pole, at 17,069 mph from an average altitude of 290 miles.

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The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket with the NASA Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) onboard is seen shortly after the mobile service tower at SLC-2 was rolled back, Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The ICESat-2 mission will measure the changing height of Earth's ice.
Credits: NASA/ Bill Ingalls

"With this mission we continue humankind's exploration of the remote polar regions of our planet and advance our understanding of how ongoing changes of Earth's ice cover at the poles and elsewh ere will affect lives around the world, now and in the future," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

ICESat-2 carries a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS). ATLAS will be activated approximately two weeks after the mission operations team completes initial testing of the spacecraft. Then ICESat-2 will begin work on its science objective, gathering enough data to estimate the annual height change of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to within four millimeters – the width of a pencil.

"While the launch today was incredibly exciting, for us scientists the most anticipated part of the mission starts when we switch on the laser and get our first data," said Thorsten Markus, ICESat-2 project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "We are really looking forward to making those data available to the science community as quickly as possible so we can begin to explore what ICESat-2 can tell us about our complex home planet."

The high-resolution data will document changes in the Earth's polar ice caps, improve forecasts of sea level rise bolstered by ice sheet melt in Greenland and Antarctica, and help scientists understand the mechanisms that are decreasing floating ice and assess how that sea ice loss affects the ocean and atmosphere.

ICESat-2 continues the record of ice height measurements started by NASA's original ICESat mission, which operated from 2003 to 2009, that were continued by the agency's annual Operation IceBridge airborne flights over the Arctic and Antarctic, which began in 2009. Data from ICESat-2 will be available to the public through the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Goddard built and tested the ATLAS instrument, and manages the ICESat-2 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Northrop Grumman designed and built the spacecraft bus, installed the instrument and tested the completed satellite. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch service acquisition, integration, analysis and launch management.

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Last Updated: Sept. 15, 2018
Editor: Katherine Brown

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Jack Beyer‏ @thejackbeyer 10 мин. назад

The last #DeltaII lifting #ICESat2 into orbit. Shot from a 4300' mountain top in California.
@ulalaunch @torybruno @NASA @NASASpaceflight

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Brady Kenniston‏ @TheFavoritist 1 ч. назад

Liftoff of the final @ULAlaunch Delta II flying NASA's #IceSat2 into a polar orbit! This rocket is incredibly photogenic! Check out the full launch gallery later on http://NASAspaceflight.com/l2 

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https://www.ulalaunch.com/about/news/2018/09/15/united-launch-alliance-successfully-launches-final-delta-ii-rocket-with-nasa-s-icesat-2
https://www.ulalaunch.com/about/news-detail/2018/09/15/united-launch-alliance-successfully-launches-final-delta-ii-rocket-with-nasa-s-icesat-2

United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Final Delta II Rocket with NASA's ICESat-2

Delta II ICESat-2 Launch Information Page
Delta II ICESat-2 Mission Booklet
Photos: Delta II ICESat-2 

The end of an era for the industry workhorse

Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., (Sept. 15, 2018) – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket carrying NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) spacecraft lifted off from Space Launch Complex-2 on Sept. 15 at 6:02 a.m. PDT. This marks the final mission of the Delta II rocket, which first launched on Feb. 14, 1989, and launched 155 times including ICESat-2.

From its origin as the launch vehicle for the first Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to NASA's Earth observing, science and interplanetary satellites – including Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity – to vital commercial communication and imaging satellites, the Delta II rocket has truly earned its place in space history.

"ULA is proud that the Delta II rocket has been a significant piece of history, launching more than 50 missions for NASA," said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Government and Commercial Programs. "I sincerely thank the entire ULA team, NASA, U.S. Air Force, and all of our partners and suppliers who have worked diligently to launch the final Delta II rocket, as well as the dedication of the teams throughout the past 29 years of the program."

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ICESat-2 will provide scientists with height measurements to create a global portrait of Earth's third dimension, gathering data that can precisely track changes of terrain including glaciers, sea ice, forests and more. Northrop Grumman built the spacecraft. In addition to ICESat-2, this mission included four CubeSats which launched from dispensers mounted to the Delta II second stage.

This mission launched aboard a Delta II 7420-10 configuration rocket, which included a 10-foot-diameter payload fairing (PLF). The booster for this mission was powered by the RS-27A engine and the second stage was powered by the AJ10-118K engine.

This is ULA's seventh launch in 2018 and the 130th successful launch since the company was formed in December 2006.

ULA's next launch is the AEHF-4 mission for the U.S. Air Force on an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

With more than a century of combined heritage, United Launch Alliance is the nation's most experienced and reliable launch service provider. ULA has successfully delivered 130 satellites to orbit that aid meteorologists in tracking severe weather, unlock the mysteries of our solar system, provide critical capabilities for troops in the field and enable personal device-based GPS navigation.

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Tactical Sky Guy‏ @tacticalskyguy 2 ч. назад

В ответ @SpaceflightNow

@ulalaunch @Erdayastronaut @DJSnM @earthskyscience @SpaceflightIns @Marine_layer

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Glenn Beltz‏ @gb0n 2 ч. назад

Another view of the #IceSat2 launch from Goleta, showing the exhaust plume nicely illuminated by the about-to-rise Sun.

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Pauline Acalin‏ @w00ki33 4 ч. назад

At the press site awaiting launch of NASA's ICESat-2. Crisp and clear view of the Delta II. #nasa #IceSat2

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John Kraus‏ @johnkrausphotos 1 ч. назад

Ignition! United Launch Alliance's #DeltaII rocket begins its final journey to space, delivering the #ICESat2 satellite to orbit.

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https://www.vandenberg.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1634673/vandenberg-launches-delta-ii-icesat-2/

Vandenberg launches Delta II ICESat-2
30th Space Wing Public Affairs / Published September 15, 2018



VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Team Vandenberg successfully launched a Delta II rocket carrying NASAs ICESat-2 payload from Space Launch Complex-2 here, Saturday, September 15, at 6:02 a.m. PDT.