The launch of a U.S. government research and development satellite got a green light late Wednesday after officials determined a portion of the rocket used to ferry the spacecraft into orbit will not endanger a tiny inhabited south Pacific atoll when it falls to Earth.
The Department of Energys Multi-spectral Thermal Imager (MTI) will now blast off aboard a Taurus rocket at 4:23 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday (9:23 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
The satellite had been scheduled for a February 28 launch. However U.S. Air Force officials called the launch off after French Polynesian officials voiced concerns that the rockets second stage could impact one of the French overseas territorys 120 islands -- the best known of which is Tahiti.
The 10-foot (3-meter) stage technically the rockets third typically falls within a 300-square-mile (780-square-kilometer) impact zone.
Initially, the U.S. Air Force thought the French Polynesians were referring to Maria, a tiny atoll that is listed in United Nations documents as being uninhabited.
However, the island in question was actually the inhabited atoll of Marutea, which the French Polynesians pointed out lies within the rectangular box indicating where the stage would likely come down to Earth.
After poring over data, officials agreed that Marutea lies within the box but not within an elliptical area within that box that represents the actual drop zone, said 1st Lt. Colleen Lehne, of the Air Force Space and Missile Center.
"To simply things, they expand the ellipse into a rectangle, giving it specific longitude and latitude lines to make it easier for seamen and mariners to avoid the area," Lehne said. "Thats when atoll Marutea came into play."
Lehne said she was uncertain how the Air Force confused the two islands.
Treaty monitoring and science
Once in orbit, the 1,305-pound (587-kilogram) satellite is designed to peer down on Earth, using a telescope to "see" in 15 spectral bands ranging from visible to long-wave infrared.
The
should test the ability to spot from space the telltale signs of weapons production, such as cooling ponds alongside nuclear reactors and traces of dust associated with the processing of uranium ore.Coincidentally, one of the closest islands to Maria is Muroroa, where the French have tested nuclear weapons since 1966.
Confirmation that MTI can spy from space on sites that are readily identifiable from the ground could then lead to future satellites that could be pressed into the hunt for previously unknown or undisclosed weapons factories across the globe.
The satellite will also be able to map chemical spills, vegetation health and volcanic activity. More than 100 researchers drawn from 50 different defense and civilian agencies intend to work on MTI-gathered data.
The launch, the fifth of an Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus rocket, will be carried live on
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