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Space Science

Launch Attempt for Kodiak Star Tonight 75

Posted by timothy from the launching-discoballs-from-alaska dept.
Jens Lönn writes: "The delayed Launch of the Kodiak Star is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 29 (.pdf article). This is the first launch into Earth orbit from Kodiak Island. There is a three-hour launch window extending from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. The effect of the solar flare activity that forced launched cancellation earlier this week is being monitored. The weather forecast for Saturday is favorable for a launch attempt with approximately a 15% chance of weather criteria violation. However, after solar flare activity was factored in, the chance of not meeting the criteria is 60%. Launch coverage on NASA Television and NASA TV on the Web will begin at 8 p.m. EDT. So make sure you're seated, cuz now were gonna light those kick-ass engines and go out into space." Michael noted that this is the first launch from Alaska; one of the four science experiments on board will be the reflective Starshine 3, with mirrors ground and polished by students all over the world. Cross fingers for favorable launch.
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Launch Attempt for Kodiak Star Tonight More

Launch Attempt for Kodiak Star Tonight

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  • Why Alaska? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Digitalia ( 127982 )
    In my schooling, I was taught that the reason most launch facilities were built near the equator was to decrease the requirements for fuel needed for gravitational escape. So what advantage does this setup in Alaska give? Other than remoteness, I don't quite get it. Does anyone want to tell me what I'm missing?

    • Re:Why Alaska? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 29, 2001 @02:37PM (#2368631)
      Launching from the equator gives an initial velocity in the direction of the earth's motion. This is only useful if the desired orbit is in that direction.

      Many spacecraft are destined for a polar orbit (over the poles) rather than an equatorial orbit (guess over what). The choice of orbit depends on the mission of the spacecraft. Communication satellites typically use geosynchronous orbits (equatorial) while many earth observation satellites use a polar orbit.

    • Re:Why Alaska? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Burnon ( 19653 )
      From the pdf mentioned in the headline:

      "The advantage to this location is its wide-open launch corridor and an unobstructed down-range flight path. The location is ideal for launching expendable launch vehicles with payloads requiring low-Earth polar or sun-synchronous orbits".

      So, if I read this properly, the remoteness of the location is a bonus for expendable vehicles which may drop parts.

      I'm not sure how important it is, but one of the mission descriptions in the article pointed out that one of the experiments would be able to take advantage of the polar orbit, putting the satellite in the line-of-sight:

      Launching Starshine 3 from the Kodiak Launch Complex at a 67-degree inclination will allow students worldwide, including northern latitudes such as Alaska, northern Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia to particpate in the project. Worldwide student participation has not been possible on previous mission launched at lower inclinations from the Space Shuttle.

      For what it's worth, I don't quite understand all of that - a satellite in polar orbit shouldn't be any more worlwide-visible than one in a more equatorial orbit - just visible to a differnt set of onlookers.

      • Re:Why Alaska? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Burnon ( 19653 ) on Saturday September 29, 2001 @02:54PM (#2368672)
        Ahh - here's the answer to my question about polar orbits, and some other interesting info on the launch site, at this link [akaerospace.com]

        I had no idea what a polar orbit really was. I guess it really does get full earth coverage.

      • Re:Why Alaska? (Score:4, Informative)

        by brassrat77 ( 9533 ) on Saturday September 29, 2001 @03:06PM (#2368702)
        You want a location that places the flight path over water/remote areas for safety. KSC isn't in a "remote" location and population centers limit the available launch azimuths.

        Vandenburg is the main US launch site for polar orbits, the islands off California require dogleg flight paths to achieve some orbits.

        As NASA says, Kodiak provides an unobstructed launch corridor for polar orbits. Weather and the remote location make it less than ideal, however.

        French Guiana is in an excellent location for equatorial launches and has a good launch azimuth for polar - it is one of the few launch sites that can do both geotransfer (equatorial) and earth observation (polar) launches.

        • Re:Why Alaska? (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Burnon ( 19653 )
          They've taken an interesting approach to dealing with the weather [akaerospace.com]. It looks like they can prep the rocket for launch indoors, and then rotate the surrounding structure away prior to the launch.

          How far does something like this go toward getting a launch in bad weather?

      • Re:Why Alaska? (Score:3, Informative)

        by Chagrin ( 128939 )
        • So, if I read this properly, the remoteness of the location is a bonus for expendable vehicles which may drop parts.
        You're thinking two-dimensionally -- you need to take into account that the rocket will take an orbital path around a spinning object.

        Take a gander at the flight path [azinet.com] of the rocket and you'll see what areas of the planet will be passed over. It flies down the Pacific coast, around the southern tip of South America, and then back up and around the east coast of Africa. From there it does fly over the continent of Russia before continuing down over the middle of the Pacific, but of course any problems with the launch are going to be far past at that point. You really couldn't hope for a better flight path.

        • From there it does fly over the continent of Russia

          Hey, I didn't hear that Russia got promoted! It's been a long time coming -- way to go, man! I never liked Asia and Europe anyway. :)
          • Well, what with all the Perestroika I figured they deserved it ;)

            Point taken. My bad :)
            • Actually, they probably do, or at least I could never see any geographical reason to divide Europe from Asia. Cultural reasons aplenty, but it all looks like the same landmass to me.

              But of course, then we'd have one less continent and the world would start to feel cramped. Hell, there'd probably be a war over it.:)

        • Thanks! That's a great diagram - it helps to make some sense of what's going on.

          I don't understand one point though - the track for the second pass seems to end over the middle east, but there's no event marked there. Does that imply that the rocket, after discharging its payload into various orbits, is going into its own orbit, leaving earth orbit, or doing something else?

          • Sounds ripe for a conspiracy theory - I wonder if the US military has a payload too? :)

            More likely they just let the remainder of the rocket fall back to earth and burn up in the atmosphere, much like the main fuel tank for the space shuttle.

    • Re:Why Alaska? (Score:3, Informative)

      by hhe_hee ( 470065 )
      Why Alaska? There are several answers, first the answer to your question:
      • For this mission, the goal isn't to leave the planet (gravitational escape). It's just to get up in orbit around earth, so the stuff will still be trapped in the gravitational field. But to be able to "kick" the rocket out into space from an orbit, it is better that you do this from the equator. To save fuel of course.
      • The advantage of launching from this location is its wide-open launch corridor and an unobstructed down-range flight path. The location is ideal for launching expendable launch vehicles with payloads requiring low-Earth polar or sun-synchronous orbits. A look at an overwiev of the launch complex [akaerospace.com] gives some more understanding. Because of the earth rotation, the rocket will fly out over the Pacific.
      • The weather on Kodiak Island is similar to that of the northwest region of the U.S. with an average rainfall comparable to Cape Canaveral in Florida (which is favorable :).
      • Along with an excellent geographic location for aerospace operations, Alaska is in the world's most active trading hemisphere and is positioned as the crown of the Pacific Rim. This strategic location, combined with a fully developed transportation system, allows for efficient logistics and worldwide distribution. Alaska has a long history of aerospace activity, and with the wealth of technical resources and skilled personnel in our state, is leading the way for an emerging commercial aerospace industry.

  • the weather (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Capt. Beyond ( 179592 ) on Saturday September 29, 2001 @02:51PM (#2368667)
    One of the major problems with launching from Kodiak is weather (not to mention bears chasing around the scientists! :) ). That far north, not only can storms last for months, but solar weather (as demonstrated this week) is also a major player.

    If you've never seen aurora from that far north, you have yet to really live....

    • Re:the weather (Score:2, Informative)

      by Burnon ( 19653 )
      Maybe it's not so bad as you (and I) are expecting, at least not according to the PR from the folks who built the Kodiak site:

      The weather on Kodiak Island is similar to that of the northwest region of the U.S. with an average rainfall comparable to Cape Canaveral in Florida. Because of warm Japanese currents, the climate of Kodiak Island is more moderate than its northern latitude would otherwise dictate. Kodiak has a yearly mean temperature of 40F, and in only three months of the year do the normal temperatures fall below 32F. Visibility and prevailing winds compare favorably with those at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California.
      Quote from this link [akaerospace.com].

  • You can listen to one of the other payloads (Score:5, Informative)

    by brassrat77 ( 9533 ) on Saturday September 29, 2001 @02:59PM (#2368688)
    PCSAT, designed and built by midshipmen at the US Naval Academy, carries an APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) [usna.edu] transponder. Downlink is 145.825 MHz, FM, 1200bps AFSK. (Uplink for licensed amateurs is on 70cm, don't have the info handy).

    If all goes well, you should be able to at least hear the downlink packets with a VHF scanner and 1/4 wave vertical antenna (YMMV). You will need a AX.25 TNC and terminal or comparable sound-card software to see the telemetry from the satellite and APRS position reports that get relayed through the satellite. Note that locations in the US will have to wait about 9 orbits before they can hear anything.

    More info on the PCSAT web page [usna.edu]. You can learn more about amateur radio at the ARRL web page [arrl.org] and about amateur satellites at the AMSAT web page [amsat.org].

    73, KA1LM

    • Sapphire, built by Stanford University, carries a couple of experiments and a voice synthesizer microchip designed to convert text messages into a human voice for transmission over amateur radio frequencies.

      "Daisy Daisy give me your answer true.."

      The funky thing is that due to Doppler shift, it would be higher pitch as it approached, and shift downward as it passed. :^)
    • No TNC is needed, just a sound card and the AGW Packet Engine software.

      More info at http://www.qsl.net/soundcardpacket/

  • Ownership/control? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by T.Hobbes ( 101603 ) on Saturday September 29, 2001 @03:16PM (#2368725)
    Browsing around the Alaska Aerospace corp. [akaerospace.com] page, I got the distinct impression that the launch facility is privately-owned; in fact, they specifically mention that they're the only commercial launch complex without an adjacent federal facility. Yet NASA is sending up the first rocket (or so it seems..). Does anyone here have a clear idea as to the ownership/control of this and other American space launch facilities?
    • AK Aerospace is a joint venture. The federal govt. is a partiner along with private companies and the state of Alaska. The overall organization is under the broader state chartered development corp.
  • I think the Starshine 3 program is a great learning and research experience all in one. I wish I could have been involved with something like that when I was in school. Just kinda makes you feel good that we're making education exciting and getting some research done at the same time.

    KidA
  • The Gulf of Alaska (where Kodiak Island is located) is well known for its bad weather, especially in winter, where storms can get you hurricane force winds in a couple hours. Inaccurate weather models don't help predicting either. I did a report on several Gulf of Alaska phenomena which you can see here. [jhuapl.edu]
    • Florida has great weather, if you don't count all those hurricanes.
      The Gulf of Alaska has bad weather yes. But most of that weather is rain, more rain and even more rain. Kodiak is not a tropical paradise, but it has much better weather than the Aleutians, which have the truly awful weather of the gulf.

  • Everybody, get ready (Score:3, Funny)

    by Mathness ( 145187 ) on Saturday September 29, 2001 @03:51PM (#2368802) Homepage
    One Kodiak moment coming up ;)
  • Go to the NASATv like above!

  • Gramar? (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Mike McTernan ( 260224 )
    > ...forced launched cancellation earlier this week is being monitored.

    Does this make sense? I know this is offtopic, but it does kinda disappoint me when I see mistakes like this on the front page.

    Slashdot has a great readership and needs to be a great example...
  • I'd just like to congradulate the folks up in Kodiac on what looks like a flawless launch at this point. I doft my cap to you. Many happy orbits!

  • Why exactly are they sending a giant disco ball into space?

    • They're doing that to create an artificial eclipse of the sun. This, combined with the power plant being disabled, will allow all of the light-fearing monsters to come out and turn the city of Townsville into a dance club. Fortunately, the Powerpuff Girls will save the day by blowing up the disco ball in a hilarious Star Wars parody.

  • Talk about slow deployment time... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Smack ( 977 ) on Sunday September 30, 2001 @01:11AM (#2369763) Homepage
    One of the payloads is the SAPPHIRE satellite [wustl.edu].

    It has a digital camera [wustl.edu] on board to take pictures, just as a freebie add-on.

    The interesting thing is the specs on that camera, the Logitech Fotoman Plus. A resolution of 496 x 360, with 256 levels of gray. Stores 32 pictures in RAM. A serial interface. A cost of $520.

    See... they had to pick the camera back in 1994. So they're using 7 year old technology. Amazing how far things hav come, isn't it?
  • A replay of the launch is available from SpaceRef's [spaceref.com] home page.
  • There has been at least two test launches (I can remember) and a handfull of sub-orbital flights from this facility. This is the largest and most recent but certainly not the first. I remember reading the headlines when the first rockets were lit off in '98 (in our AK papers of course).
  • Heavens-above.com [heavens-above.com] (one of my favorite sites) provides visibility reports from any location on earth for Starshine, the International Space Station, Hubble, Iridium Satellites, planets, comets, asteroids and more, in easy-to-use format. I've found their data to be very accurate, and it really impresses the neighbors when you can point up and say, "Look right there-that's the Space Station."

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