CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A $224 million mission to study wind patterns over the Earth's oceans and watch for coronal mass ejections from the Sun soon will begin thanks to the successful delivery to orbit Monday of the Coriolis spacecraft.
A joint project of the U.S. Air Force and Navy, the polar-orbiting satellite was launched atop a two-stage Titan 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Liftoff on the mission's sixth launch attempt came at 9:19 a.m. EST (1419 GMT), marking the planet's first orbital launch of 2003.
"It was beautiful, clear and perfect," said Air Force spokeswoman Tina Greer.
The launch took place just before sunrise on the West Coast, with the rocket climbing through dark skies before breaking into sunlight. It created a spectacular scene that included being able to see the three-piece nose fairing separate from the tip of rocket, Greer said.
Four attempts in December were called off due either to weather or technical problems, and then a fifth attempt on Sunday was scrubbed because of out-of-limits upper-level winds.
Following an hour-long mission that sent the rocket and spacecraft streaking toward Antarctica, the 1,798-pound (816-kilogram) satellite successfully separated from the Titan 2's second stage. Soon after, the satellite deployed its solar arrays and ground controllers were communicating with the spacecraft.
"The launch was smooth, the rocket was ready and we just had to wait for Mother Nature," Col. Mike Dunn, Titan 2 launch director. "A fabulous job on this very important mission."During the next two to three days Coriolis will use its own on-board thrusters to circularize its orbit at an altitude of about 515 miles (830 kilometers). Research operations could begin almost anytime immediately after that, said Navy spokesman Richard Williamson.
Coriolis was assembled in Arizona by Spectrum Astro, Inc., and includes two science instruments -- the first of which is called Windsat.
Built by the Naval Research Lab for the Navys Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Windsat is a microwave polarimetric radiometer. It is designed to measure wind speed and direction at sea level.
Though still at the experimental stage, Windsat will give researchers a chance to work out any bugs in the system before deploying the instrument as an operational tool on the next generation of weather satellites the U.S. government hopes to launch during the next few years.
To support this research, ships and aircraft will be deployed to certain areas of the ocean and take wind measurements at the same time Coriolis is flying overhead.
The ground- and space-based data that is gathered will be compared to come up with the models that will be used by future applications of this technology.
Knowing the wind patterns over the ocean will help scientists better understand Earth's climate and forecast weather, while also helping the Navy better plan deployment of ships and weapons systems based on which way the winds are blowing, officials said.
The second instrument aboard Coriolis is the Solar Mass Ejection Imager, or SMEI.
Built by the Air Force Research Lab, this instrument is designed to improve space weather forecasts by keeping an eye on the Sun and watching for any massive eruptions. Coronal ejections that throw huge amounts of charged particles toward our planet can wreak havoc with satellite operations, as well as communication services and electrical power grids on the ground.
Just as timely warnings of a hurricane approaching the coast help prevent loss of life and minimize damage, SMEI could provide between one to three days of advanced warning from the time an eruption occurs on the Sun's surface to the time the solar plasma reaches the Earth's magnetic field.
Coriolis rode into orbit atop an Air Force Titan 2 that was originally constructed as an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.
Equipped with a nearly 10-megaton nuclear warhead, the missile sat underground in a silo at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona from 1967 to 1982 as part of the nation's Cold War nuclear deterrent.
Once deactivated as part of strategic arms reductions, Lockheed Martin converted 14 of the missiles into space launch vehicles for polar orbiting missions sent aloft from Vandenberg.
With the launch of Coriolis, 12 have now flown -- all successfully.
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