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The Next US Moonshot Will Launch From Virginia
As reported by the Washington Post, a U.S. spacecraft headed for the moon (to circle it, though, not to land) is to be launched for the first time from the facility at Virginia's Wallops Island. If you'll be in the D.C. area on the night of September 6 and the weather cooperates enough for a launch, it should be worth staying up for. "The robotic mission is to collect detailed information about the moon's thin atmosphere. Sometimes thought to be nonexistent, the lunar atmosphere has been described as extremely tenuous and fragile, but present. According to the space agency, the launch will record many firsts. One will be the first launch beyond Earth orbit from the Virginia facility. It also will be the first flight for the Minotaur V rocket, NASA said. NASA said the five-stage Air Force rocket is an excess ballistic missile that was transformed into a space-launch vehicle. It will boost the space probe into position for it to reach lunar orbit."
Though the satellite is NASA's, the launch will be controlled by Orbital Sciences.
A moonshot is a manned mission that lands on the moon. Apollo 8 wasn't a moonshot, Apollo 11 was. I suppose this is just people hearing words rattling around in the culture and just blurting out whatever comes to mind. Eh, I'd say "I expect better" but I know better than to expect better from this website.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I thought the physics of this kind of stuff favored being closer to the equator? Why would you move north of Canaveral?
You have to wonder how much that atmosphere was effected by debris still up there from Deep Impact, Chandrayaan-1's Moon Impact Probe, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's centaur upper stage impacts.
Too bad they didn't do a before-and-after of this particular mission.
... the world will be a better place. No more wars, no more cancer and AIDS, no more corruption.
Very useful, as they say in America: "One small step for men, blah blah blah fuck you mankind."
Huh, I always thought of the Moon being in Earth orbit.
So, it's really in a spiraling orbit around the Sun and it happens to spiral around the Earth?
I've seen launches from Wallops from the observatory I go to (Wagman Observatory) just north of Pittsburgh. It's not much to see from that distance but the fact I can see anything is impressive.
I wondered the same thing. further there's a whole cadre of instrumentation that needs to be built up to create a valid launch range, and we already have that, so why spend all that money on something closer to D.C.?
Wallops Flight Facility is already heavily instrumented and has been in operation for over 50 years. There have been 16,000 launches from that facility including orbital launches.
Now as for why they are doing this particular mission at WFF instead of Canaveral, I have no idea. Could be an effort by NASA to cater to a wider swath of congress. Could be military related in some way. Might be that the resources for that particular mission were more conveniently located there. I'm sure there is a reason but it isn't obvious what that reason might be.
Wallops has an excellent track record for launches. If you're not familiar with them maybe you shouldn't be making such sweeping statements.
Did they say it was a FIVE-stage rocket? Yes, apparently the Minotaur V has five stages. Makes sense, I guess, if you want to get a 600kg payload the moon, but it's the first time I've heard that phrase, at least not from NASA. Just strikes me as weird.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
For those of you on the east coast of the US.
LADEE Launch Visibility
Considering, most moon launches originated in Hollywood.
Suits: Hello. We're from the EPA. Afraid your spaceflight launch will need to be cancelled indefinitely. Apparently it will be coming in contact with the moon's atmosphere and our public sources from Slashdot and elsewhere have identified it as being, "extremely tenuous and fragile".
NASA: But it's the moon! It's not earth!
Suits: [smiles] Now. Now. You knew this was going to happen. Just because it's the moon doesn't mean that the regulatory arms of the US government can't reach. If your rockets can reach it - why so can we. And since the atmosphere is fragile and tenuous, it may also harbor a similarly fragile and tenuous ecosystem.
NASA: Ecosystem?
Suits: Yes! Ecosystem. You engineers need to show a little more imagination. Think a little more outside the box. But we're quite certain that with the small number of atmospheric molecules around the moon, the percent pollution from a few rockets would be horrendous! Anything that might possibly be living would be affected. Eventually, it would get Maia upset.
NASA: Who is Maia? Someone in your office?
Suits: Uh, Maia is a half finished idea. We thought it would be nice to have a Gaia for the moon, so we changed the 'G' to an 'M' for the moon, see? Now we have Maia.
NASA: So when can we launch?
Suits: Now you're getting it.
le edgy 2k. The EPA is to blame for us not posting from Pluto amirite! It's totally the environmentalists' fault that the space program is in shambles.
Let me guess, you're one of those Global climate change deniers too, eh, mr. Strawman?
Dude, they've been lighting off the big fireworks from Wallops since 1945.
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You cannot wash away blood with blood
Why use a multibillion dollar tried and tested launch facility, like the ones in Florida and Califorinia, when you can build a new one in a poor location?
Wallops Flight Facility has been in operation for over 50 years and has launched over 16,000 rockets including orbital missions. But don't let those actual facts get in the way of your prejudiced rant.
This post is insightful?
That picture on Space.com makes no sense. If the Moon is back-lit by the Sun, I expect to see an almost totally black disk. The Surveyor pictures on this page (scroll down) look more like what I expect. Can anybody explain why the Space.com picture looks like it does? Long exposure with Earth shine, or did they 'shop it because they thought it would look better?
At least that's their address...I pass it all the time in Dulles, VA.
http://www.orbital.com/About/Contact/ :)
Yes yes environmentalists are behind all the worlds problems. Its ok. Calm down. You can QQ now.
I thought the summary said "will launch from Vagina".
This is Slashdot. The home of knee jerk reactions and underrating posts that have actual information instead of snide remarks with no basis in reality.