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Alaskan Space Port Prepares for First Launch
dlkf writes: "The Kodiak Launch Complex on the Alaskan coast, run by the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation is scheduled, weather permitting, to send an Athena-1 booster with 4 NASA and Air Force science experiments into orbit tonight. If successful, Alaska will become just the fourth state (California, Florida and Virginia are the others) to send rockets into earth orbit. For more info, read this."
Are they trying for polar orbits or what? I had thought the launch bonus you get from launching near the equator made it much less economical to head towards the poles.
Dyolf Knip
Getting into the Space Race. Let us see if they get into the space travler business.
While I was reading the start of this article, I couldn't figure out why Alaska would be chosen as a launch site for a rocket, considering the 90% chance of weather too poor for launch. If, like the article says, it was chosen specifically for the deployment of the Starshine 3 satellite, I am very impressed with the dedication to the education of the nations (and the worlds) young people in space-science this shows. Hopefully, its projects like this that will kids interested while we gradually make our way to Mars and beyond.
There's a picture of the Starshine 3 sattelite at the AziNet site.
Also, information on tracking both satellites is here at the NASA Starshine Observers page.
Ah well, maybe this upcoming "terrorist war" will have nice spinoffs: more research into intercontinental missiles which results in cheaper launches, research into life support systems to combat bio-weapons and maybe, just maybe a cure for stupidity found by accident (hey, I'm a dreamer!)
Strange.. I would think this is a waste of fuel, and launching extra weight is expensive. Why not eject the lower sattelite first, and then move up to higher orbit?
karma capped
Wow, anti-aliased fonts and it plays DVDs! Nice to see Linux is finally approaching the capabilities of Windows 5 years ago. Too bad 99% of the apps suck.
And why is it that Windows is still very much the same as five years ago whereas Linux has caught up with it and in some areas gone ahead?
The Alaska Aerospace website is really interesting, and nice looking too.
Speaking of commitment to education, I sure wish more slashdotters would bother to read the articles, not just the postings, before reeling off comments. But what do I know.
Windows hasn't changed much from 95 to XP? Dude, you're exhibit number one as to why people think that Linux fanboys are either imbeciles or just plain blinded by their zealotry.
... or doesn't it count when you kill yourself in the process?
Thomas S. Iversen
So when the initial cost of Windows isn't some outrageous price, and the app quality is pretty much infinitely better -- meaning that I'm going to save a lot more in productivity time, because time does equal money -- Linux just becomes a very silly choice. As someone else said, Linux is only free if your time has no value.
Florida has the cape, California has Vandenberg AFB, and now Alaska has the Kodiak Launch Complex. What I'm wondering is; what is the name of the place in Virginia where they launched something into orbit?
Always exciting to see America making the business of space exploration/exploitation less science fiction and more of a economic reality.
I was just wondering if another excellent reason to launch rockets from Alaska was to periodically give seizures to the tracking facilities in China, North Korea and well even good ol' Russia.
For instance, perhaps a half a second before launch does the commander in chief for the Pacific navy call them and say, "HEADS UP!" And then a second after they confirm it was civilian planed launch call back and say, "PSYCH! Heh heh... lighten up wussies!"?¾}0A
Because I think I approve of that.
They will launch a disco ball in orbit, that will bother all the photo-astronomers in the world, "for the childrens".
As if there are no natural stars, and existing satellites ar not bright enough. I don't see how such a disco ball will teach more things to childrens...
And they plan to launch more... sigh...
Between that and light pollution of cities, will we loss our superb natural stars ???
Getting to the right altitude takes much less energy than getting up to orbital velocity. I would guess this manuver would actually save fuel in a manner similar to a gravitational slingshot.
northern lights?
help out.
I don't know why they put the launch site here, I do know it p*ssed off a lot of people. Originally it was supposed to be a commercial launch site, but so far it has only been military launches. And the military is now looking at taking the whole project over. The weather here is pretty nasty. We've been having horizontal rain, with 30-knot winds for the last few days, and as winter gets closer, it will get much worse. We will get below freezing temps and winds up to 110-knots. I'm just glad I work inside :)
The range is operated by the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute, which studies Space Physics and Aeronomy among other things.
One of the neatest things about having a rocket range affiliated with the University is that students can design and launch a suborbital rocket in the ASRP.
See what I've been reading.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Kodiak is an island about 87 miles off the mainland coast of Alaska, and while it has plenty of coastline, it isn't exactly "on the Alaskan coast," although I suppose you could argue that as an island Kodiak has plenty of coastline. It was the capital of the Russian settlement in Alaska from 1783 to 1799, long before U.S. westward expansion into the Oregon territory and California.
If you take a picture of the launch, will it be a Kodiak Moment?
Being near the equator is an asset when launching into low-inclination orbits, and a liability when launching into high-inclination orbits. Being near a pole is an asset when launching into polar orbits, but makes it nearly impossible to launch into low-inclination orbits.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
California, Florida, and Virginia are the only states to launch rockets into orbit? Did someone overlook the rather large spaceport in Houston?
Your proctologist called...they found your head. Remove "no-spam" from email address to contact me
I thought Texas had sent up rockets.
I'm sure we have tested ICBMs from more than those states.
ICBM's don't go into orbit.
This is the same mission as the Budget Satellite story covered back in August.
You gotta be kidding me.
I'm really curious as to why they're actually building a launch site there. The advantage that comes from launching near the equator is huge. Intead of trying to launch from no relative movement to the earth, you already got a speed boost from the rotation of the earth itself if you're on the equator. It's just gonna cost a lot more for fuel (which adds more fuel to make up for the weight of the extra fuel... which adds more fuel, etc).
Not orbit, but space.... REALLY!
m l
On 1/29/1971, a rocket was launched into space from the tip of the Keweenaw peninsula!
http://www.gt.org/keweenaw-rocket-base/index.ht
--==>>BobT>