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Launch Attempt for Kodiak Star Tonight
Jens Lönn writes: "The delayed Launch of the Kodiak Star is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 29 (.pdf article). This is the first launch into Earth orbit from Kodiak Island. There is a three-hour launch window extending from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. The effect of the solar flare activity that forced launched cancellation earlier this week is being monitored. The weather forecast for Saturday is favorable for a launch attempt with approximately a 15% chance of weather criteria violation. However, after solar flare activity was factored in, the chance of not meeting the criteria is 60%. Launch coverage on NASA Television and NASA TV on the Web will begin at 8 p.m. EDT. So make sure you're seated, cuz now were gonna light those kick-ass engines and go out into space."
Michael noted that this is the first launch from Alaska; one of the four science experiments on board will be the reflective Starshine 3, with mirrors ground and polished by students all over the world. Cross fingers for favorable launch.
Launching from the equator gives an initial velocity in the direction of the earth's motion. This is only useful if the desired orbit is in that direction.
Many spacecraft are destined for a polar orbit (over the poles) rather than an equatorial orbit (guess over what). The choice of orbit depends on the mission of the spacecraft. Communication satellites typically use geosynchronous orbits (equatorial) while many earth observation satellites use a polar orbit.
From the pdf mentioned in the headline:
"The advantage to this location is its wide-open launch corridor and an unobstructed down-range flight path. The location is ideal for launching expendable launch vehicles with payloads requiring low-Earth polar or sun-synchronous orbits".
So, if I read this properly, the remoteness of the location is a bonus for expendable vehicles which may drop parts.
I'm not sure how important it is, but one of the mission descriptions in the article pointed out that one of the experiments would be able to take advantage of the polar orbit, putting the satellite in the line-of-sight:
Launching Starshine 3 from the Kodiak Launch Complex at a 67-degree inclination will allow students worldwide, including northern latitudes such as Alaska, northern Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia to particpate in the project. Worldwide student participation has not been possible on previous mission launched at lower inclinations from the Space Shuttle.
For what it's worth, I don't quite understand all of that - a satellite in polar orbit shouldn't be any more worlwide-visible than one in a more equatorial orbit - just visible to a differnt set of onlookers.
One of the major problems with launching from Kodiak is weather (not to mention bears chasing around the scientists! :) ). That far north, not only can storms last for months, but solar weather (as demonstrated this week) is also a major player.
If you've never seen aurora from that far north, you have yet to really live....
-- "Perceptions create reality. By changing your perceptions you change your reality."
Ahh - here's the answer to my question about polar orbits, and some other interesting info on the launch site, at this link
I had no idea what a polar orbit really was. I guess it really does get full earth coverage.
If all goes well, you should be able to at least hear the downlink packets with a VHF scanner and 1/4 wave vertical antenna (YMMV). You will need a AX.25 TNC and terminal or comparable sound-card software to see the telemetry from the satellite and APRS position reports that get relayed through the satellite. Note that locations in the US will have to wait about 9 orbits before they can hear anything.
More info on the PCSAT web page. You can learn more about amateur radio at the ARRL web page and about amateur satellites at the AMSAT web page.
73, KA1LM
You want a location that places the flight path over water/remote areas for safety. KSC isn't in a "remote" location and population centers limit the available launch azimuths.
Vandenburg is the main US launch site for polar orbits, the islands off California require dogleg flight paths to achieve some orbits.
As NASA says, Kodiak provides an unobstructed launch corridor for polar orbits. Weather and the remote location make it less than ideal, however.
French Guiana is in an excellent location for equatorial launches and has a good launch azimuth for polar - it is one of the few launch sites that can do both geotransfer (equatorial) and earth observation (polar) launches.
Browsing around the Alaska Aerospace corp. page, I got the distinct impression that the launch facility is privately-owned; in fact, they specifically mention that they're the only commercial launch complex without an adjacent federal facility. Yet NASA is sending up the first rocket (or so it seems..). Does anyone here have a clear idea as to the ownership/control of this and other American space launch facilities?
They've taken an interesting approach to dealing with the weather. It looks like they can prep the rocket for launch indoors, and then rotate the surrounding structure away prior to the launch.
How far does something like this go toward getting a launch in bad weather?
I think the Starshine 3 program is a great learning and research experience all in one. I wish I could have been involved with something like that when I was in school. Just kinda makes you feel good that we're making education exciting and getting some research done at the same time.
KidA
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -Homer Simpson
The Gulf of Alaska (where Kodiak Island is located) is well known for its bad weather, especially in winter, where storms can get you hurricane force winds in a couple hours. Inaccurate weather models don't help predicting either. I did a report on several Gulf of Alaska phenomena which you can see here.
Sheepdot: Open Source good, Closed Source baaaaaaad!
One Kodiak moment coming up ;)
Carbon based humanoid in training.
- So, if I read this properly, the remoteness of the location is a bonus for expendable vehicles which may drop parts.
You're thinking two-dimensionally -- you need to take into account that the rocket will take an orbital path around a spinning object.Take a gander at the flight path of the rocket and you'll see what areas of the planet will be passed over. It flies down the Pacific coast, around the southern tip of South America, and then back up and around the east coast of Africa. From there it does fly over the continent of Russia before continuing down over the middle of the Pacific, but of course any problems with the launch are going to be far past at that point. You really couldn't hope for a better flight path.
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2 reptiles beneath your current threshold.
Go to the NASATv like above!
Hey, I didn't hear that Russia got promoted! It's been a long time coming -- way to go, man! I never liked Asia and Europe anyway.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
satellite is out of range at T+18 minutes. Next pass is in 1 hour over Kenya. Spaceflightnow has a status center here http://www.spaceflightnow.com/athena/kodiakstar/st atus.html
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
I'd just like to congradulate the folks up in Kodiac on what looks like a flawless launch at this point. I doft my cap to you. Many happy orbits!
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
Why exactly are they sending a giant disco ball into space?
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
One of the payloads is the SAPPHIRE satellite.
It has a digital camera on board to take pictures, just as a freebie add-on.
The interesting thing is the specs on that camera, the Logitech Fotoman Plus. A resolution of 496 x 360, with 256 levels of gray. Stores 32 pictures in RAM. A serial interface. A cost of $520.
See... they had to pick the camera back in 1994. So they're using 7 year old technology. Amazing how far things hav come, isn't it?
A replay of the launch is available from SpaceRef's home page.
But of course, then we'd have one less continent and the world would start to feel cramped. Hell, there'd probably be a war over it.:)
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander