VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - A Taurus rocket is set to blast off early Tuesday, ferrying into space a mixed payload consisting of a Korean remote-sensing satellite, a NASA satellite that will measure the suns radiance and capsules carrying cremated human remains.
The Orbital Sciences Corp. rocket is scheduled for liftoff during a 17-minute launch window that opens at 2:07 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. It will be the fourth flight of one of the medium-lift rockets.
The primary payload for the mission is the Korea Multi-purpose Satellite (Kompsat), sponsored by the fledgling Korea Aerospace Research Institute. American aerospace manufacturer TRW Inc. developed the satellite.
The 1,112-pound (510-kilogram) satellite carries an electro-optical camera, an ocean-color imaging camera, an ionosphere measurement sensor and a high-energy particle detector. Its three-year mission will include efforts to map Korea, monitor the ocean's color and conduct space physics experiments.
The Taurus also carries NASAs new Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (Acrimsat). This is the third in a series of satellites that will measure the total energy that comes from the light of the sun.
Both Kompsat and Acrimsat will settle into polar orbits about 420 miles (685 kilometers) above Earth.
The 253-pound (115-kilogram) Acrim satellite will measure changes in the suns radiance over the next five years. Even a minute change in the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth is thought to have a large impact on global climates.
A drop as small as one-quarter of 1 percent in the total solar irradiance possibly led to the period known as the Maunder Minimum, or "Little Ice Age." From about 1645 to 1715, global temperatures were about 3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) cooler than todays average.
Some scientists have suggested the cooling is due to lowered solar radiation.
Conversely, a rise in irradiance levels may also play a corresponding role in global warming, perhaps contributing to 25 percent of the rise in temperatures over the last century.
The rocket also will carry a decidedly non-scientific payload -- portions of the cremated remains of 36 people from the United States, Japan, China and other countries.
"The human desire to spread into space is common in all cultures," said Chan Tysor, president of Houston-based Celestis Inc. The company contracted with Orbital Sciences to piggyback a 2-pound (0.9-kilogram) canister containing the capsules of ashes into orbit.
Kompsat, Acrimsat and the ash-containing canister (bolted to the final stage launch motor) will settle into polar orbits about 420 miles (685 kilometers) above Earth. A Celestis spokesman said the ashes could remain in orbit anywhere from 100 to 1,000 years before reentering and burning up in the atmosphere.
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