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Space Moon NASA

Unmanned NASA Rocket Lifts Off From Wallops Island, On Way To Moon 56

Posted by timothy from the why-is-nasa-listening-to-our-calls-from-the-moon? dept.
A moon-bound NASA rocket was launched successfully Friday evening from Virginia's Wallops Island. The launch was visible over a wide stretch of the east coast; YouTube videos are beginning to show up. The robotic probe, to study lunar dust, is the first rocket launched into outer space from the Virginia launch site.
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Unmanned NASA Rocket Lifts Off From Wallops Island, On Way To Moon More

Unmanned NASA Rocket Lifts Off From Wallops Island, On Way To Moon

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  • If the launch goes a bit wrong, it just may wallop the moon.

  • Where's the shortcut for undoing laziness (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 07, 2013 @03:16AM (#44782379)

    YouTube videos are beginning to show up

    How about linking to NASA's video of it [youtube.com]?

  • They took the AIRS unit out, can't let NASA have those expensive DoD toys.

    Once again, beating our swords into plowshares

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geogob ( 569250 )

      Just a thought, but maybe they simply don't need that kind of accuracy for this payload? The lunar transfer can be done with much lower accuracy (ref all other flights there until now) and at the difference from an ICBM, they have a much larger window to verify an correct the trajectory. The payload itself can also make corrections once placed in lunar orbit. Why would they waste an AIRS, if its not needed.

      I actually don't understand why the peacekeeper needed it in the first place... I mean, the th

      • You are correct. The peacekeeper needed it because of the mobile basing requirement. Most missiles would sit in a static silo, with the INS having a contant reference that doesn't move. Mobile basing required the need for a better INS system. AIRS is being moved to the Minuteman III for reasons I'm not quite sure, other than they had 50 of them for the MX program, now they built another 600 or so for the entire Minuteman program. Government welfare for the defense industries?

  • Damn thing was headed down far longer than it was headed up.

    Hey, NASA! Moon is thataway! ^^^^

  • It would help if sometimes some basic fact checking [wikipedia.org] went into summaries. Of course how often are Slashdot summaries even remotely accurate?

    The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport has been used for other launches, but admittedly they have all been either sub-orbital sounding rockets or orbital spacecraft. This is the first "deep space" mission to fly out of this particular spaceport... so I suppose there is a "first" in there somewhere.

    I'll also admit that it is nice to see some success from companies other than SpaceX. Kudos on the part of Orbital Sciences for getting this flight to work.... and to get the spacecraft to the Moon. It also doesn't hurt that the launch could be seen by a million or so people due to the proximity of the launch site to Washington DC & Baltimore.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by geogob ( 569250 )

      I usually agree with the edition problem of Slashdot, but here I see thing with a bit more nuance. First, the summary accurately summarizes the linked article. It does exactly what it should do. Of course, on a site like Slashdot, where the techical and scientific accuracy is expected higher then elsewhere, a noet from the editor pointing the innacuracy in the linked and summerized article would have been nice. But that can't really be expect frm most Slashdot editors.

      Then one can debate whether the informa

  • Both the Washington Post and the Original Poster apparently do not understand the difference between deep space and outer space.

    The robotic probe, to study lunar dust, is the first rocket launched into outer space from the Virginia launch site.

    From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

    The first payload launched into orbit from Wallops was Explorer IX, atop a Scout booster, on February 15, 1961

    Any orbit is in outer space, so the WaPo missed that one by almost half a century.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by rossdee ( 243626 )

      " The first payload launched into orbit from Wallops was Explorer IX, atop a Scout booster, on February 15, 1961

        Any orbit is in outer space, so the WaPo missed that one by almost half a century.

      Don't you mean more than half a century (1961 to 2013 is 52 years)

      Its not rocket science, just arithmetic

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bmo ( 77928 )

        >getting this upset over a 4 percent tolerance.

        I'll bet you're one of those guys who puts all the dimensions on every drawing to 4 places, even when 3 place or fractional tolerances make more sense.

        --
        BMO

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Teancum ( 67324 )

      Deep space is sort of a question of distance too. Most current mission planning considers anything beyond the Moon as being "real" deep space, although the real accomplishment would be to send something outside of the Solar System as genuinely "deep space". Of course you could say they are still having to deal with magnetic fields, stellar wind, and all sorts of other problems that aren't so common in "real deep space" like the stuff between galaxies.

      None the less, it really was a neat accomplishment for

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mbone ( 558574 )

        In current practice, "Deep Space" means "you need to engage the Deep Space Network for communications." LADEE will use the DSN, so it counts as deep space.

  • I watched the launch from PA. Very good show. Impressive stage separations.

  • I suppose that's better than wallchan...

  • Who forget to fill it with politicians?????

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