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Brevard County, Florida ping.LAUNCH ALERT
Let me know if you want on or off this low volume ping list.
(not associated with the county government)
Posted on 01/19/2017 1:43:37 PM PST by BenLurkin
If all goes according to plan, a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket will loft the third Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellite Thursday at 7:46 p.m. EST (0046 GMT on Jan. 20) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. ULA will provide a live launch webcast via YouTube, beginning at 7:26 p.m. EST (0026 GMT). You'll also be able to watch the rocket launch here, courtesy of ULA.
The aerospace company Lockheed Martin built the satellite, known as SBIRS Geo-3, for the U.S. Air Force. As the name suggests, two other SBIRS spacecraft are already aloft; SBIRS Geo-1 and SBIRS Geo-2 launched in 2011 and 2013, respectively.
"SBIRS, considered one of the nation's highest-priority space programs, is designed to provide global, persistent, infrared surveillance capabilities to meet 21st-century demands in four national security mission areas, including missile warning, missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace awareness," ULA representatives wrote in a brief mission description.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
I will step out to my backyard and watch it.
Brevard County, Florida ping.Hopefully, it will be a ruse of a missile that will go off line and crash and burn in North Korea right on top of kim dung dung.
Thanks for the missle warning satelite warning!
Thanks for the missle warning satelite warning!
So ... will its mates already on orbit monitor its launch?
Why do we need it?? Obama said the World has Never been Safer and the US has never been more respected in anytime in history. So Why did OBAMA ORDER IT???
To monitor the bad guys.
Obama said the World has Never been Safer and the US has never been more respected in anytime in history.
0bama is a lying skunk. And in 19 hours, he will not be President.
So Why did OBAMA ORDER IT???
Congress authorized it, and 0bama doesn't believe his own bull$#!+.
Hope it goes all right.
Can’t they postpone it for about 24 hrs.
Thanks for posting this!
I had planned on being out somewhere in the Savannah area to see this, but, had forgotten about it until now.
I MAY still be able to catch it.
Thanks Again!
Launching tonight to watch N. Korea’s launch of ICBM’s tomorrow.....and then blast them out of the sky..........
I used to live there and night launches are the best.
Love your tagline.
Currently on hold T-4 minutes.
They reset the launch time to 01:126 GMT (”Zulu”)?
8:16 pm EST
The launch window is pretty narrow. They are working an engine fault so it is on hold.
The launch window is so narrow because the orbit is precisely timed to the time of day that it gets into the orbital slot. SBIRS is launched into an inclined orbit where the initial orbit circle is about 8 degrees north of the equator at noon local time and 8 degrees south of the equator at midnight local time. The reason for the inclined orbit is that the satellite only does East-West station keeping due to the close spacing of GEO satellites. To save fuel North-South station keeping is not done.
The Earth orbit is inclined to the sun. When the satellite is on the day side of earth the sun has a little more gravitational pull than the night time side which is slightly more distant. The result is that the inclination gets pulled down by about 1 degree per year. After about 8 years the satellite will be in almost perfect GEO orbit over the equator. Then it will drift to the opposite inclination where it will be south of the equator at noon.
With radiation, the satellites usually last about 15 years so it is not likely to get much more than 8 degrees inclination in the other side. All to save the weight of the fuel it would take to do N-S station keeping.
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