CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A Canadian Space Agency probe intended to give scientists better insight about the health of Earth's atmosphere was sent into polar orbit late Tuesday by a winged Pegasus XL rocket.
The NASA-managed shot was staged from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and began at 10:10 p.m. EDT (0210 GMT Wednesday) when the three-stage rocket was air-launched over the Pacific Ocean.
Less than 11 minutes later the 330-pound (150-kilogram) satellite was safely circling the planet over the poles, a perch from which it can take measurements of the planet's atmosphere by looking at sunrises and sunsets.
"It does look like everything's well on its way for SciSat, and we wish our Canadian Space Agency counterparts good luck with their mission," said Chuck Dovale, NASA's launch director.
The space agency's Kennedy Space Center launch team was responsible for getting the mission off the ground, a service the Canadian agency paid $21.6 million for.
Most of that money went to Orbital Sciences, the company that built the Pegasus XL rocket and provided the L-1011 jumbo jet that acts as the booster's mothership.
Dubbed Stargazer, the modified jumbo jet carries Pegasus under its belly to a point offshore and about 39,000 feet (11,890 meters) high. There the rocket is dropped and five seconds later its first-stage engine is ignited.Tuesday's mission marked the 35th launch for the Pegasus program that became operational in 1990.
Science goals
Of principal interest for the two-year, $40 million SciSat-1 mission is the status of Earth's ozone layer.
More specifically, investigators will seek to better understand how chemical processes take place in the upper atmosphere and affect the ozone layer, which protects all living things from the sun's harmful ultraviolet light.
That research is particularly critical right now because the information might help researchers determine if the ozone layer is on the mend, as many scientists believe.
"It's not completely clear that that's true," said mission scientist Peter Bernath. "There's still a lot of unanswered questions about the ozone layer and the atmosphere."
A pair of instruments make up the science package. The main one is called the Fourier Transform Spectrometer, which was built by ABB of Quebec City. The other is called the Measurements of Aerosol Extinction in the Stratosphere and Troposphere Retrieved by Occultation -- MAESTRO, which was built by EMS Technologies of Ottawa.
The instruments will be able to detect more than 30 different types of gases. Many of those are classified "greenhouse gases" that are blamed for contributing what some scientists say are human-induced changes in the planet's climate.
The two-year mission could be extended depending on budget constraints and the value of the science gathered, officials said.
"I'm sure, as in all science missions, we don't even know yet what good things entirely will come out of it," Bernath said.
Soyuz flown
The Pegasus mission was the second launch into orbit from the planet on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day a Soyuz U rocket successfully carried into orbit the Cosmos 2399 satellite for the Russian Defense Ministry.
Liftoff was at 10:20 a.m. EDT and the satellite was reported in orbit nine minutes later by Russian space officials. But that's all that was said about the classified mission.
Another military satellite is expected to be launched by Russia before the end of August, officials said. That shot is due from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
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