ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp ^ | 2003 January 14 (Saturday) 08:55 PST | Brian Webb, KD6NRP

[WSGilcrest]

SUNDAY VANDENBERG LAUNCH

After several delays, the Air Force will make another attempt on Sunday to launch the Coriolis military R&D satellite. A Titan II booster carrying the spacecraft is set to lift-off from Vandenberg AFB tomorrow morning at 06:18 PST, the start of a 15-minute launch window.

Following lift-off, the refurbished strategic missile will begin heading southward. Several minutes later the Titan will place Coriolis into an egg-shaped orbit that circles the Earth's poles.

Since launch is set for morning twilight, a nice visual display might occur as the vehicle emerges from the Earth's shadow and sunlight reflects off of the exhaust. If such a display does take place, it will probably be during the late portion of the second stage burn.

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MISSION BACKGROUND

Detailed information about the Coriolis mission is available on the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command web site. The URL is:

http://enterprise.spawar.navy.mil/spawarpublicsite/body.cfm

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COUNTDOWN STATUS

The best source of countdown status for the Titan II/Coriolis launch is the Spaceflight Now web site. Space journalist Justin Ray is now providing current countdown status on a web page devoted to this launch. Point your browser to:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/titan/g4/status.html

On launch day, this page will be updated frequently beginning at about T-1 hour. Be sure to regularly hit the refresh button on your browser to see the latest information.

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VANDENBERG LAUNCH NET

Amateur (ham) radio operators in southern California will probably meet on the air on launch day to hold a Vandenberg Launch Net. This informal net is used to discuss pending launches and pass along countdown status. It usually runs from T-30 to T+15 minutes.

The participants primarily use the Broadcast Peak repeater near Santa Barbara. It has very wide coverage and is a cross-band repeater. In other words, it simultaneously receives and rebroadcasts signals on the 2-meter, 220, and 440 amateur radio bands. The output frequencies are 147.000, 224.900, 449.300 MHz. The offset and PL tone for all frequencies are minus and 131.8 Hz, respectively.

Since this launch may be visible across a wide area, additional repeaters may be used for the benefit of those in outlying areas. These would be the 147.090 MHz Santa Catalina repeater and the Condor linked repeater system.

Condor is a network of linked repeaters in California and adjoing areas. Because the repeaters are linked, a ham using one repeater will be heard on all of the other repeaters in the system. The Condor repeaters are as follows:

Freq. PL (MHz) Offset (Hz) Location ------- ------ ----- ---------------- 223.840 - 156.7 Victorville 223.940 - 141.3 San Diego 223.940 - 156.7 Thousand Oaks 224.000 - 156.7 Santa Barbara 224.180 - 156.7 Palm Springs 224.640 - 156.7 Lake Isabella 224.720 - 156.7 Gorman 224.820 - 141.3 Lompoc 224.820 - 156.7 Orange County 224.880 - 156.7 Kingman, AZ 224.900 - 156.7 Fresno 224.900 - 156.7 Las Vegas, NV 224.920 - 156.7 San Luis Obispo*

* This repeater may be off the air or disconnected from the system.

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[Russell Scott]

Should be spectacular. The Santa Ana's were blowing today. I went up to Mt. Wilson on my motorcycle and watched the sun set. It was incredible, an absolute masterpiece from the Good Lord. Wondrous clouds appeared directly where the sun sets, and looked like a swirling galaxy. Then an outstretched hand appeared, and a pair of eyes. All the while the oranges and reds were blazing like the blood of Jesus covering our sins. Obviously a whole sermon in there somewhere. You can have all the art museums you want, what I saw at dusk today was absolute, priceless beauty.

[petuniasevan]

Thanks Gil; I linked this thread on the APOD for 1-05-03.

[Cvengr]

BTTT

[Cvengr]

BTTT

[Cvengr]

Mission scrubbed for today, Winds to high. Rescheduled for tommorrow, same Bat-time, Same Bat-place.

[SuziQ]

Won't be able to see this one since we're in MA, but the son of some friends of ours is at Vandenburg. He graduated from the USAF Academy year before last, and was excited about getting to work in the rocket programs there.

[Brad’s Gramma]

bttt for tomorrow!