The first launch from a
newly christened commercial spaceport on the coast of Virginia will haul a U.S. military experimental tactical satellite and a tiny research craft into space Monday
morning.
Engineers are spending the
weekend conducting final preparations for the mission, which is scheduled to
begin as early as 7:00 a.m. EST (1200 GMT) Monday, or less than 10 minutes
before sunrise. Monday's launch window extends for three hours. [Click here for
launch viewing information].
The four-stage Minotaur
rocket will blast away from its seaside launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional
Spaceport on the southern tip of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Delmarva Peninsula.
The rocket will fly
southeast away from the U.S. East Coast before deploying its payloads over the Atlantic Ocean.
Developed by Orbital
Sciences Corp., the Minotaur combines a unique blend of hardware from heritage
missile and rocket programs.
The launcher's first and
second stages use solid rocket motors from decommissioned Minuteman 2 ballistic
missiles. The solid-fueled third and fourth stages come from designs from
Orbital's commercial air-launched Pegasus rocket program.
The weather outlook for
Monday morning appears favorable, with forecasters predicting partly cloudy skies
and westerly winds of about 10 knots. Temperatures are expected to be in the
mid-30s, said NASA spokesman Keith Koehler.
The launch could put on a
spectacular light show for millions of residents in eastern Virginia and Maryland as the rocket ascends into sunlight.
Tucked away inside the
Minotaur booster's modified bulbous 61-inch (154-centimeters) payload fairing
are the U.S. military's TacSat 2
demonstration satellite and the 10-pound (4.5 kilograms) GeneSat 1 spacecraft
for NASA.
All five previous Minotaur
missions used a standard nose cone based on the fairing used by the Pegasus
rocket.
Both payloads are destined
for an orbit roughly 255 miles (410 kilometers) high with an inclination of
around 40 degrees.
The 814-pound (369-kilogram)
TacSat 2 spacecraft carries a slate of 11 experiments to be conducted during
the satellite's mission, which could last up to one year.
One of the primary
objectives of the mission was a rapid design cycle, construction and launch of
the satellite, which was first approved two years ago, according to an Air
Force statement.
Officials expect the craft
to be declared operational just a day after launch if all goes as planned.
Many of the experiments
aboard TacSat 2 focus on tactical objectives, such as testing communication
links between ground stations in the United States and military units deployed
overseas.
Critical imagery of theater
operations could be transmitted through the spacecraft, according to military
officials.
TacSat 2 will also attempt
to demonstrate autonomous operations, a RoadRunner onboard processor, a GPS
occultation receiver for navigation and 500-watt recycled solar panels for
power production.
The project is jointly
managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Space Development and Test
Wing, the Naval Research Laboratory, the Army Space Program Office, Air Force
Space Command and the Space Warfare Center.
A small secondary payload
for NASA is also on the cargo manifest for Monday's launch.
GeneSat 1 will test the
affects of spaceflight on bacteria samples carried inside the satellite's
miniature laboratory. The E. coli bacteria samples are similar to those used to
help digest food in the human body.
Biological test results
will be monitored for about four days, but ground controllers will continue to
track the craft's systems for up to a year as it continues to circle Earth. The
mission also includes a significant contribution from University students.
Monday's launch will be the
first orbital mission to originate from Wallops since 1999, when a Pegasus
rocket was launched from the belly of an L-1011 jet offshore. It is the first
attempted ground-launched space mission from the site in more than 11 years.
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