Hi All: I know this is off-topic, but those of you in the southwestern U.S. might be interested in this. Regards, Brian Webb ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Brian Webb, KD6NRP Ventura County, California E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp 2002 October 12 (Saturday) 18:05 PDT ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MONDAY VANDENBERG LAUNCH A refurbished Minuteman II strategic missile is scheduled for launch this Monday evening from Vandenberg AFB. The vehicle will send an unarmed warhead and decoys to the central Pacific as part of a missile defense test. The launch window runs from 19:00 to 23:00 PDT. Although there's no guarantee when the Minuteman will be launched, there's a good chance it will go at 19:00 or shortly afterwards. If the Minuteman is launched between 19:00 and 19:19 PDT, the vehicle will exit the Earth's shadow as it heads downrange. The exhaust plume will be backlit by the Sun with a twilight or dark sky as a backdrop, creating an impressive sight. The display could be visible across a large portion of the U.S. southwest and Mexico. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The following is a Defense Department press advisory related to Monday's launch PRESS ADVISORY from the United States Department of Defense The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) will conduct a developmental flight test to include the planned intercept of a long-range ballistic missile target in support of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) test program on Oct. 14, 2002. The test will involve the launch of an Orbital Suborbital Program long-range missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The OSP, a modified Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile, will carry a mock warhead and decoys. About 20 minutes after the target missile is launched, and about 4,800 miles away, a ground-based interceptor (GBI) carrying a prototype exoatmospheric kill vehicle (EKV) will launch from the Ronald Reagan Missile Test Facility at Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. About 10 minutes later the intercept is planned to take place at an altitude of approximately 140 miles above the central Pacific Ocean during the midcourse phase of the target warhead's flight. This will be an integrated system test, with all representative system elements participating: space-based missile warning sensor; ground-based early warning radar, the prototype X-Band radar at Kwajalein Atoll and the GMD battle management, command, control and communications system located at Kwajalein Atoll and the Joint National Integration Facility in Colorado Springs, Colo. Since the system is in its research and development phase, these elements serve as either prototypes or surrogates for system elements which are in the developmental stage and have not yet been produced for actual operational use. A U.S. Navy Aegis destroyer, the USS John Paul Jones, will participate in the test, using its SPY-1 radar to gather data about the target and interceptor missiles. While the ship's radar will not take part in directing the interceptor to its target, the data gathered will be used to confirm the potential role the SPY-1 radar and the Aegis weapon system could play in a defense against long-range missile targets. This will be the first time an Aegis radar is participating in a GMD flight test. This will be the seventh intercept test of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense element research and development program. The first test on Oct. 2, 1999 resulted in the successful intercept of a ballistic missile target. The second test took place on Jan. 18, 2000, and did not achieve an intercept due to a clogged cooling pipe on the EKV, but did successfully test the integrated system of elements. The third test, on July 8, 2000, did not result in an intercept when the EKV and booster rocket failed to separate. The fourth test, on July 14, 2001, achieved a successful intercept of a ballistic missile target, as did tests on Dec. 2, 2001 and March 15, 2002. These last three tests used all GMD components as part of a fully integrated flight test. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VANDENBERG LAUNCH NET Amateur radio operators interested in discussing the launch are invited to participate in one of the Vandenberg Launch Nets beginning at 18:30 PDT on Monday. The primary Vandenberg Launch Net will be held on the the WB6OBB repeater in Santa Barbara. This repeater has very wide coverage and simulcasts on 147.000, 224.900, and 449.300 MHz. Since Mondays's launch may be visible over a wide area, secondary launch nets will be held on the 147.090 MHz Catalina Island repeater and on 3.815 MHz, LSB. The Catalina repeater covers areas to the south that the Santa Barbara repeater cannot. Meanwhile, 3.815 MHz is in the high frequency, or shortwave, portion of the radio spectrum and covers the western U.S. There may also be some launch-related discussions on the Condor linked repeater system, but these are not officially part of the launch nets described above. The Condor system covers much of California and currently consists of the following repeaters: 223.840 Mount Vaca (Vacaville) 224.600 Mount Hamilton (San Jose) 224.900 Goat Mountain (Fresno) 224.920 Tassajara Peak (San Luis Obispo) 224.640 Shirley Peak (Lake Isabella) 224.820 Tranquillon Peak (Lompoc) 224.720 Frazier Mountain (Gorman) 223.840 Quartzite Mountain (Victorville) 224.000 Brush Peak (Santa Barbara) 223.940 Raznow Peak (Thousand Oaks) 224.820 Santiago Peak (Orange County) 224.180 Toro Peak (Palm Springs) 223.940 Lyons Peak (San Diego) 224.880 Hayden Peak (Kingman) 224.900 Mount Potosi (Las Vegas) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LAUNCH PHOTOGRAPHY If Monday's launch creates a dusk light show, you might want to record it on film. Doing so should be farily easy. All you'll need is the following: 35mm camera 50, 100, or 135mm lens Film Cable release Tripod To capture the vehicle on the way up, use Fuji Superia 800 film and 4, 2, 1, and 1/2 second exposures at f/2.8. To capture the aftermath (twisted contrail), use Fuji Superia 400 with exposures of 16, 8, 4, and 2 seconds at f/2.8. _______________________________________________ To subscribe or unsubscribe from this newsletter, go to: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/launch-alert Questions and comments regarding this newsletter and editorial contributions should be directed to kd6nrp@earthlink.net ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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