* Astronomy

Over the course of September we received and responded to the technical reviews of our set of papers that are slated to be published in Science Magazine. In general, these reviews were excellent! Just to share a small piece of one of them, it said "This report is a very clear, concise and well illustrated presentation of the first full-sky maps of energetic neutral atoms (ENA's) created in the outer heliosphere. The data, recorded by the IBEX satellite, are excellent, and those maps represent a major advance in heliospheric science, with potential applications to astrophysical plasmas in general. Both maps and energy spectra contain a wealth of information, and the maps have enough spatial resolution to unambiguously reveal _______________________. This spectacular ____________ calls for new ingredients in the models and is an exciting discovery. I recommend the publication without delay of this report, which contains details on the data as well as a very interesting preliminary analysis, and should interest a broad community." Sorry about the blanks in the above report, but these exciting results are embargoed until 15 October, when we will have a big press conference at NASA headquarters and Science will release the papers. I can hardly wait until everyone gets to see them!

Source

Predicted Time: 15th November, 2008 @ 21:30 GMT ± 2 hours

Inclination: 11°
Revolution Number: 436
Predicted Location: 4.1° N, 304.5° E

A PEGASUS rocket body that was air launched from the US Western Range on the 19th October, 2008, for the IBEX  mission is predicted to re-enter the Earths atmosphere on the 15th November, 2008 @ 21:47 GMT   ± 24 Hours

TLE Data

PEGASUS RB
1 33402U 08051B   08319.46432299  .02422779 -31701-4  56112-3 0   669
2 33402 010.9957 175.9466 0030333 149.6063 210.7071 16.27078399  4132

Period: 89.43  
Inclination:    11°
Apogee:  296  
Perigee: 196
Revolution Number:    437
Predicted Location: 8.3° S, 10.3° E

NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer mission, or IBEX, successfully launched from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean at 1:47 p.m. EDT, Sunday. IBEX will be the first spacecraft to image and map dynamic interactions taking place in the outer solar system.
The spacecraft separated from the third stage of its Pegasus launch vehicle at 1:53 p.m. and immediately began powering up components necessary to control onboard systems. The operations team is continuing to check out spacecraft subsystems.

"After a 45-day orbit raising and spacecraft checkout period, the spacecraft will start its exciting science mission" - IBEX mission manager Greg Frazier of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

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