{"id":13748,"date":"2018-06-06T18:29:01","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T10:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/pegasus-rocket-nasa-satellite-head-for-launch-base-in-pacific\/"},"modified":"2018-06-06T18:29:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T10:29:01","slug":"pegasus-rocket-nasa-satellite-head-for-launch-base-in-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/pegasus-rocket-nasa-satellite-head-for-launch-base-in-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"Pegasus rocket, NASA satellite head for launch base in Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The Pegasus XL rocket, fastened underneath an L-1011 carrier plane, took off Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, en route to Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: Gene Blevins\/LA Daily News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Slung under the belly of a specially-equipped carrier airplane, a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket took off Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a two-day trek to a remote U.S. military test site in the Pacific Ocean, where crews will ready the air-dropped booster for launch of a NASA research satellite next week.<\/p>\n

The ferry flight from California to Kwajalein Atoll in the mid-Pacific Ocean will position the Pegasus rocket, its carrier jet, and support teams for final preparations for launch June 14 with NASA\u2019s Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, a satellite designed to probe the link between Earth\u2019s atmosphere and space weather.<\/p>\n

ICON is about the size of a refrigerator and weighs a little more than 600 pounds for launch. The $252 million project is NASA\u2019s first mission dedicated to studying the influence of Earth\u2019s weather on the ionosphere, an ever-changing layer in the upper atmosphere that affects long-distance communications and navigation.<\/p>\n

It will ride into orbit at the forward end of a 55-foot-long (17-meter), three-stage Pegasus XL rocket, the world\u2019s only operational air-launched orbital-class satellite booster.<\/p>\n

The ICON spacecraft and the Pegasus XL rocket were built by Orbital ATK.<\/p>\n

In a coincidental confluence of events, the company\u2019s acquisition by Northrop Grumman closed Wednesday. Northrop Grumman announced the conclusion of the transaction soon after the Pegasus rocket\u2019s L-1011 carrier aircraft, named \u201cStargazer,\u201d left California on the two-leg journey to Kwajalein.<\/p>\n

Orbital ATK, formed three years ago by the merger of Orbital Sciences and ATK, now functions as a distinct business unit within Northrop Grumman, and has been renamed Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems.<\/p>\n

The three-engine L-1011 carrier jet took off from Vandenberg\u2019s concrete runway with the Pegasus XL rocket at around 12 p.m. PDT (3 p.m. EDT; 1900 GMT) Wednesday, heading for an overnight layover at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii.<\/p>\n

A charter jet carrying a team of launch controllers, engineers and technicians departed Vandenberg a couple of hours before the L-1011 carrier jet, also heading for an overnight refueling stop in Hawaii.<\/p>\n

Both aircraft are scheduled to arrive at Bucholz Army Airfield at Kwajalein Atoll, located in the Marshall Islands, late Thursday, U.S. time.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A view of the Pegasus XL rocket during preparations for the ferry flight to Kwajalein. Credit: Gene Blevins\/LA Daily News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The L-1011 carrier jet will fly through the Pegasus rocket\u2019s planned drop box north of Kwajalein Atoll as it approaches the remote island, situated just west of the International Date Line. The launch team will run through the final steps of the Pegasus countdown checklist, and the U.S. Army\u2019s Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein will activate range tracking equipment to simulate launch day procedures.<\/p>\n

The rehearsal opportunity will give the Pegasus crew a chance to practice the countdown, and ensure range systems and a mobile control center recently set up at Kwajalein by an advance team are ready for launch day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll do a practice dress rehearsal with all the actual radars and equipment that Reagan Test Site will be using for the mission to test that equipment with our rocket at the actual drop point, and with our crew in our control center that we\u2019ve set up there, so that we can get an end-to-end check,\u201d said Eric Denbrook, Northrop Grumman\u2019s site manager and head of launch vehicle processing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, in an interview Monday. \u201cThat will be really close to what we\u2019ll see on launch day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once at Kwajalein, support crews will configure the already-assembled Pegasus XL rocket for launch, and engineers will ensure the solid-fueled booster and the ICON spacecraft weathered the nearly 5,000-mile (8,000-kilometer) journey from California unscathed.<\/p>\n

Another compatibility check between the ICON spacecraft, Pegasus rocket, the Stargazer carrier plane, and the Reagan Test site is also planned this weekend. A final launch dress rehearsal is on tap early next week, including a test of data and telemetry relays between Kwajalein and the ICON satellite control center in Berkeley, California.<\/p>\n

After final closeouts and launch preps, the L-1011 aircraft will take off from Kwajalein and head north to the Pegasus drop box. The L-1011\u2019s co-pilot will command release of the 51,000-pound (23-metric ton) Pegasus XL at 39,000 feet (11,900 meters) during a planned 37-minute window opening June 14 at 1401 GMT (10:01 a.m. EDT).<\/p>\n

The drop is currently targeted for around 1406 GMT (10:06 a.m. EDT), or 2:06 a.m. Kwajalein time on June 15, to begin an eight-minute climb into orbit roughly 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth.<\/p>\n

Next week\u2019s mission will mark the 44th launch of a Pegasus rocket on a satellite delivery mission, and the 34th in the Pegasus XL configuration with uprated solid rocket motors. It will be the fifth Pegasus mission staged from Kwajalein, a site which NASA and Northrop Grumman officials \u2014 then part of Orbital ATK \u2014 selected based on ICON\u2019s target orbit and the rocket\u2019s lift capability, which gets an extra boost from the island\u2019s equatorial location.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Kwajalein\u2019s location in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: Kwajalein Range Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now part of the U.S. military\u2019s Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll is part of the Marshall Islands. Before the nation gained independence, the territory was administered by the United States, which took control of Kwajalein, known as Kwaj for short, in a World War 2 battle that left numerous shipwrecks and crashed airplanes in the atoll\u2019s lagoon. Japan, Germany and Spain previously claimed Kwajalein and surrounding islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of interesting history on Kwaj, so people who haven\u2019t been there are kind of interested to go and see it for the first time,\u201d Denbrook said. \u201cFor us, the struggle is making sure we have enough spares and parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kwajalein is around 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers) southwest of Honolulu. Equipment needed by the L-1011 carrier jet, Pegasus ground control consoles, and other hardware required during the final days of the ICON launch campaign had to be transported by boat or airplane ahead of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get things in and out of that island, so we have to make sure we\u2019re prepared for any contingency that could take place,\u201d Denbrook said. \u201cFrom a logistics standpoint, that\u2019s the toughest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denbrook\u2019s team prepared the Pegasus XL rocket for launch at Vandenberg\u2019s Building 1555.<\/p>\n

Workers assembled the rocket\u2019s three stages, which arrived from a Northrop Grumman facility in Utah already packed with solid propellant, connected the Pegasus XL\u2019s delta-shaped wing and articulating fins, then mated the ICON spacecraft to the launcher last month, a few weeks after its shipment from a factory in Gilbert, Arizona.<\/p>\n

The final launch processing work included encapsulation of the ICON satellite inside the Pegasus rocket\u2019s nose shroud, and the lifting of the launcher onto a transport trailer.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A technician inspects the Pegasus rocket\u2019s payload fairing before enclosing the ICON spacecraft (right) for launch. Credit: NASA\/Randy Beaudoin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Saturday morning, crews rolled the Pegasus XL out of Building 1555 to the Vandenberg airfield and under the belly of the L-1011 carrier plane, which was jacked off the ground to receive the rocket. Teams hooked the Pegasus to the aircraft Saturday afternoon, and ran a full checkout of electrical and telemetry connections between the vehicles and the Vandenberg range Sunday.<\/p>\n

Engineers noticed some unexpected noise in the telemetry channels, prompting a one-day delay in the L-1011\u2019s ferry flight from Tuesday to Wednesday.<\/p>\n

ICON\u2019s launch was delayed a year by a pair of concerns with its Pegasus launcher.<\/p>\n

Engineers wanted more time to inspect the Pegasus rocket motors after they were mishandled during shipment to Vandenberg, officials said. That pushed the launch back from June to December 2017, the next availability in the military-run range at Kwajalein.<\/p>\n

Then managers decided to ground the mission to assess the reliability of bolt-cutters used to jettison the Pegasus rocket\u2019s payload fairing and separate the satellite in orbit. Bryan Baldwin, senior director of the Pegasus program at Orbital ATK, told Spaceflight Now that engineers opted to use slightly smaller quarter-inch diameter bolts for those functions on the ICON mission to ensure the bolt-cutter mechanisms do their job.<\/p>\n

The quarter-inch bolts have flown on previous missions, and they still meet the Pegasus vehicle\u2019s structural requirements, Baldwin said.<\/p>\n

Officials have dedicated the rocket set to deliver ICON to space in honor of Ebb Harris, who piloted numerous Pegasus launch missions since the dawn of the program more than a quarter-century ago. Harris died earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cEbb has been a mentor to everyone who has come since the beginning of the program, a true gentleman, a very knowledgable and competent airman, and just a fun guy to be around,\u201d said Don Walter, who will command the L-1011 aircraft during the ICON mission. \u201cOn every rocket that we launch, we have the ability to dedicate it to somebody, so if you look at the side of the rocket, you\u2019ll see that this rocket is dedicated to Ebb.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
A dedication to former L-1011 pilot Ebb Harris is scripted under the starboard wing of the Pegasus XL rocket. Credit: Northrop Grumman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After its launch next week, ICON will go through a month of in-orbit testing before commencing science observations to examine a mysterious connection between the variability of the ionosphere with weather phenomena deeper in Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ionosphere is the densest plasma in space between us and the sun, and that plasma has a number of effects on systems that we use every day,\u201d said Thomas Immel, ICON\u2019s principal investigator at the University of California, Berkeley.<\/p>\n

The ICON mission will study \u201chow weather in our lower atmosphere, the weather we experience from day to day, influences conditions in space,\u201d he said. \u201cThis coupling of the lower atmosphere to the upper atmosphere is a new science topic for NASA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previous NASA missions detected a link between the weather in the lower atmosphere to changes in the ionosphere, which scientists had thought was primarily driven by solar activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw with those missions that the density in the ionosphere varied in response to changes in the rainy seasons in the tropics,\u201d Immel said. \u201cThe new mission of ICON is to focus on that topic, and we\u2019re carrying the instruments to invesitgate that region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think focusing on that will give us a real key to understanding and making better predictions for space weather,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pegasus XL rocket, fastened underneath an L-1011 carrier plane, took off Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, en route to Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: Gene Blevins\/LA Daily News Slung under the belly of a specially-equipped carrier airplane, a Northrop Grumman Pegasus rocket took off Wednesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[159,2493,2920,25,679,2495,554,2899],"class_list":["post-13748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-earth-observation","tag-icon","tag-kwajalein-atoll","tag-launch","tag-launch-services-program","tag-leostar-2","tag-northrop-grumman","tag-orbital-atk"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}