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Explanation: In this alluring time exposure, star trails arc across the night sky above foggy Monterey Bay and the lights of Santa Cruz, California in the United States of America. Since the exposure began around 2:56am PDT on July 2 it also records the trail of a Delta II rocket lofting NASA's OCO-2 spacecraft into orbit. Seen from a vantage point 200 miles north of the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site, the trail represents the first five minutes of the rocket's flight along a trajectory south and west over the Pacific to join the A-Train in polar orbit around...

NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to measuring carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, a critical new data-gathering project for scientists and policy-makers, is awaiting launch Wednesday morning on a Delta 2 rocket. The launch of NASA's OCO-2 has been rescheduled for Wed, July 2, at 2:56 a.m. PDT (0956 GMT) from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Rocket: Delta 2 Variant: 7320-10C Payload: OCO-2 Date: July 2, 2014 Time: 2:56 a.m. PDT (5:56 a.m. EDT/0956 GMT) Site: SLC-2, Vandenberg AFB, California Watch the launch like at the link above or here or here or here or here starting at 12:45 a.m. PDT/3:45 a.m. EDT, Launch...

The two NASA satellites, to be launched on Friday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., aboard the same Boeing Delta II rocket, is to join three spacecraft already surveying the planet for a detailed study of the interlocking factors that affect Earth's climate. This constellation of satellites in a string 4,400 miles long will loop around the poles at an altitude of 438 miles measuring the interactions of the air, water and surface with the Sun's energy as they drive near-term weather and longer-term climate changes. The newest additions are the CloudSat, which will profile cloud formations with radar...

If all goes well, a Delta II rocket will take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California at 3:01:59. This will be the fourth attempt. Live coverage right now in countdown mode on NASA TV webstream. Image is clear on dial-up ISP. Listen for a loud sonic boom on the West Coast. "Image : Aura's Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) is designed to profile atmospheric chemistry across the globe. Aerosols are one of the trace gases humans introduce into the atmospheric chemistry through pollution. Credit: NASA" "Aura is part of the Earth Observing System (EOS), a program dedicated to monitoring the...

ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Brian Webb, KD6NRP Ventura County, California E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp 2003 January 10 (Friday) 07:20 PST ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SATURDAY ROCKET LAUNCH A Delta II rocket with two scientific satellites is scheduled for launch from Vandenberg AFB tomorrow (Saturday January 11th). Lift-off is set for 16:45 PST, the start of a 45-minute launch window. If all goes well the ICESat and CHIPSat satellites will be placed into orbit. At lift-off the Sun will be above the horizon for observers in most of California. However, this will be an evening twilight launch for Arizona, Nevada, and Utah....

05/06/02 - VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- A Boeing Delta II rocket successfully launched here at 2:55 a.m. May 4. The rocket carried a NASA imaging satellite designed to gather information about the Earth’s water cycle during a six-year mission to determine the effect, if any, of climate change. This was the second Delta II launched from Vandenberg this year.