The United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is fully fueled and ready to launch NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive spacecraft at 9:20 a.m. EST. The final commodity, liquid oxygen, has just been loaded into the Delta II first stage. The operation took 26 minutes, 12 seconds.
The ELaNa X payload comprises three Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployers, or P-PODs, containing a total of four CubeSats. These four small satellites represent three separate missions: ExoCube, a space weather satellite consisting of three CubeSat units The GEO-CAPE ROIC In-Flight Performance Experiment, or GRIFEX, a technology validation mission also consisting of three CubeSat units FIREBIRD-II …
Valves are opening and cryogenic liquid oxygen is about to begin flowing into the Delta II rocket's first stage. After tanking, the occasional puff of gaseous oxygen will be visible outside the rocket's midsection throughout the remainder of the countdown. This is normal; as the liquid oxygen warms, small amounts of it will boil off …
The Delta II family of rockets has a lengthy and successful flight history. NASA has relied on various configurations of the Delta II for a number of high-profile missions, such as the Earth-observing Aquarius and Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, telescopes such as Kepler and WISE, and several Mars missions, including Mars Pathfinder and the Spirit and …
NASA Launch Manager Tim Dunn (in the center of the photo at right) has given his "go" to proceed with loading liquid oxygen into the rocket's first stage. "The NASA team is ready for SMAP cryo tanking," Dunn declared after a quick poll of his team.
The weather forecast continues to look good for launch this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Skies are partly to mostly cloudy, there's nothing significant on the radar, and winds are light at 9 to 10 knots. There are no watches or warnings in effect, and weather is "green" on all constraints, according to 1st …
SMAP will produce accurate, high-resolution results through the combined efforts of its two instruments, a radar and a radiometer. The radar emits a signal, then measures the backscatter that bounces back from Earth. The radiometer, on the other hand, simply records the microwave signal our planet naturally emits. "Active Passive" in the mission's name refers …
Think for a moment about the soil beneath your feet or outside your window. It is damp, dry, or frozen? Maybe it's flood-prone, or dry to the point of cracking. Locally and globally, soil moisture matters. Water in Earth's soil represents only a small percentage of our planet's total quantity of water. But food crops …
NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive observatory is nearly ready for its ride into Earth orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. Countdown activities are in progress at Space Launch Complex 2 on California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. Liftoff is slated for 6:20 a.m. PST, 9:20 a.m. EST, the opening of a three-minute launch …
The mobile service tower at Space Launch Complex 2 is rolled away from the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket late Wednesday. Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
