* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: COSMIC Launch

Blobrana · L

Overcoming dismal weather that threatened to delay liftoff and a technical glitch that aborted one countdown, a rocket carrying six tiny meteorological satellites successfully blasted off Friday.

The Minotaur, assembled by Orbital Sciences Corp. from recycled missile stages and new rocket components, rumbled off Space Launch Complex-8, Vandenberg Air Force Base's most southern launch complex, at 6:40 p.m.
Although the launch team triumphed over gloomy weather that cleared enough to remove their concerns, the countdown wasn't without drama. Minotaur came within 90 seconds of blastoff just after 5 p.m. before crews called off the attempt, which was blamed on a questionable electrical reading for one of the old, previously retired missile stages.

“We do want to preserve the opportunity for another launch attempt today,” the launch conductor said, as crews worked to verify and resolve the problem before restarting the countdown, which ultimately ended with a successful blastoff.

Minotaur ferried six disc-shaped research satellites for the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate, or COSMIC, mission. The $100 million mission is a joint project involving the United States and Taiwan, where it's known as FormoSat-3.

After hearing that all six satellites had arrived in orbit about 20 minutes after blastoff, a Taiwan official thanked the launch team “for doing an outstanding job.”

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Blobrana · L

The six small weather satellites, a joint venture by Taiwan and the United States, were launched from California's Central Coast aboard a Minotaur rocket shortly after 01:30 GMT (6:30 p.m. PDT ,9:30 p.m. ET) and were expected to reach orbit about 400 kilometres above Earth.

The launch had been delayed more than an hour, due to a problem that showed up 90 seconds at the start of the launch window, but launch controllers resolved the problem in time for a second try on Friday.
The satellites five-year mission is to track hurricanes, monitor climate change and study space weather.

Blobrana · L

The Cosmic satellites — each weighing roughly 62 kilograms, including fuel — are just over a few centimetres deep but carry onboard four GPS antennas; a Tiny Ionospheric Photometer, or TIP, to calculate the total electric density of the area where the satellite faces the earth; and a Tri-Band Beacon to transmit radio signals at three different frequencies.
Data from the satellites will be made available to the international scientific community in near real-time.

The six microsatellites are to be deployed in circular orbit around Earth, at an altitude of 700 to 800 kilometres. Once launched into space, the satellites are expected to reach their mission orbits in 13 months.

The missions customer is the National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan

Blobrana · L

NASA will Webcast the Minotaur launch of the COSMIC Spacecraft

The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate, or COSMIC, is set to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, at 00:10 - 03:10 GMT, April 15 (5:10 p.m. PDT, 8:10 p.m. EDT, Friday, April 14) , aboard a U.S. Air Force Minotaur rocket. The launch window is three hours in duration. The launch countdown will be available on the Internet beginning at 22:00 GMT (3 p.m. PDT, 6 p.m. EDT) and may be accessed HERE

A globe-spanning constellation of six weather and climate research satellites based upon a novel application of a NASA-developed technology, the network is expected to improve weather forecasts, monitor climate change and enhance space weather research.
The low-orbiting satellites will be the first to provide atmospheric data daily in real time over thousands of points on Earth by measuring the bending of radio signals from the U.S. GPS as the signals pass through Earth's atmosphere, a technology known as radio occultation. The data will be used for research and operational weather forecasting.

Blobrana · L

Minotaur, the Orbital/Suborbital Program Space Launch Vehicle, will launch COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate), a cluster of tiny satellites for a joint Taiwan-U.S. project to study the atmosphere, on April 15th 00:10 - 03:10 GMT (8:10-11:10 p.m. EDT) from the SLC-8, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, US.
The four-stage rocket used U.S. government-supplied Minuteman 2 motors and Pegasus rocket stages.