Posted on 09/05/2013 12:48:36 AM PDT by TexGrill
A massive rocket carrying a spy satellite for the US government launched from the California coast on Wednesday.
The Delta IV Heavy rocket left the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base and sped towards low-Earth orbit, officials said.
The rocket carried a satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees the USA's constellation of intelligence-gathering satellites.
At 23 stories, the Delta IV Heavy is the largest rocket in the country. The last time it launched from Vandenberg - in 2011, the roar of the engines shook the nearby city of Lompoc. Some people reported hearing the engine roar from 50 miles away.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
So we don’t build Saturn V’s anymore? Why? Did we forget how?
Yes, I think we did forget how.
all the spying on Americans must have overloaded all the other satellites we had.
This is probably another Mentor class satellite and will be put into geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator.
I believe this will either increase the number of Mentor sats to 6 or it means one has failed and this is a replacement.
The last one that went up was USA-223 and was also lifted by a Delta IV Heavy carrier rocket.
These satellites have antennas that are approximately 350 feet in diameter. The lightweight dish unfolds like a giant umbrella. It does not have to deal with gravity since it is in orbit so the dish can be light and rather flimsy and still work well. It’s handy that such low temperatures are available in orbit because the low-noise front end amps work best at very low temperatures. (just keep the gear in shadow)
The gain of an antenna can be thought of as bringing the transmitter you are receiving closer to you. The gain of these Mentor class sats can be thought of as bringing every point on Earth to within a few feet of the receiver. There is virtually no rf source on Earth that these birds cannot pick up.
Hey Obama look I’m waving my middle finger at you right now. Take another look I’m gonna burn the rainbow flag right now.
Yes we did, and Werner von Braun ain't around anymore to show us how to do it again.
However, there is some hope...they at least figured out how to fire the engines again in January:
Blast from the Past: NASA Fires Historic Engine Parts for New Rocket
Saturn V “moon rocket” engine firing again after 40 years, sort of
The Friis Transmission equation is a cold-hearted b!tch...you generalizations are correct, but the wavelength (frequency), distance, antenna gains, and power have to be brought into balance.
And atmospheric absorption bands (02, variants)
Saturn V had a payload of 260,00 lbs. to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
The Delta IV payload to LEO is about 50,000.
Saturn V would be WAY overkill, both in terms of payload capacity and especially cost.
“This is probably another Mentor class satellite and will be put into geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator.”
That’s not correct. Equatorial orbits, such as a geosynchronous orbit, are not accessible from Vandenberg. Most likely polar orbit. It was reported to be a KH-11 optical imaging satellite.
The Mentors are said to be roughly equal to the Robert C. Byrd radio telescope at Green Bank. Not sure if the Mentor has an ability to alter it's shape at all. The Green Bank antenna can alter the shape of each panel slightly. I believe Green Bank has an average gain of about 85db and operates from 100Mhz to 40Ghz...if I remember correctly.
The Green Bank telescope is a monument to the strength of the triangle..lol
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