Spaceflight engineers and project managers at NASAs Ames Research Centre, and NASAs Marshall Space Flight Centre, Huntsville, Ala., teamed together to arrange a fast-paced, low-cost mission. The mission provides an opportunity to demonstrate NASA-developed spaceflight technologies and the Ames-developed modular approach to constructing the PharmaSat Risk Evaluation (or PRESat) and NanoSail-D satellites. This same approach was used successfully on a previous mission, GeneSat, and will be used for the upcoming PharmaSat mission, scheduled to launch later this year.
Weather conditions are good right now for the launch window that opens on Friday. The base have given us five days to find a time to launch. The final decision will be based on conditions on the ground.
We're now 4 days away from the launch window for the Falcon 1 flight 3 vehicle, equipped with SpaceX's new Merlin 1C regeneratively cooled engine. Launch window is August 1-5, and launch will occur out of our favorite launch base in the world, Kwaj.
A SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket (Flight 003 mission) may launch the Trailblazer spacecraft for the U.S. Air Force Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) initiative's Jumpstart mission; a space burial payload for Celestis; and two CubeSats for ATSB of Malaysia, from Omelek Island at Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands on July 29th 2008. The Trailblazer microsatellite, built by SpaceDev, is technology demonstration satellite, which will be operated by the United States Air Force and MDA, and is designed for a LEO mission.
"The Jumpstart mission is an exciting and important milestone for the ORS Office. It brings together a diverse government and industry team to demonstrate numerous ORS enablers needed to bring space power to our deployed forces. The SpaceDev satellite bus is expected to be a key contributor in the responsive satellite arena and we are pleased to be their team-mate on this important mission" - Colonel Kevin McLaughlin, Director of the ORS Office.