* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: GLAST

Blobrana · L

Re-entry Update:
The stage 2 of a Delta II heavy rocket will re-enter the Earths atmosphere on the 28th June 2008 @ 21:31 GMT ± 6 Hours

Predicted Decay Location   21.3° S, 218.4° E
Inclination   21.5°
Revolution Number   273

Blobrana · L

NASA GLAST Burst Monitor Powers Up Successfully
NASAs GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM) Instrument Operations Center in Huntsville, Ala., the focal point for observing gamma ray bursts, was alive with energy as scientists gathered to witness instrument activation the evening of June 25. The GBM team linked in with GLAST mission operations at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Md., by teleconference and studied a big screen projecting spacecraft information live.

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Blobrana · L

Re-entry Update:
The stage 2 of a Delta II heavy rocket will re-enter the Earths atmosphere on the 28th June 2008 @ 08:25 GMT ±48 Hours

Predicted Re-entry Location   20.4° S, 88.7° E
Inclination   21.5°
Revolution Number   264

Blobrana · L

Re-entry Update:
The stage 2 of a Delta II heavy rocket will re-enter the Earths atmosphere on the 28th June 2008 @ 10:41 GMT ± 48 Hours

Predicted Location   17.8° N, 250° E
Inclination   21.5°
Revolution Number   266

Blobrana · L

A stage 2 of an United Launch Alliances Delta II heavy rocket that was launched from pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the 11th June, 2008, for the GLAST satellite mission, is expected to re-enter the Earths atmosphere on the 23rd June.

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TLE Data

DELTA 2 RB2
1 33054U 08029B   08172.55724646  .01628507 -16480-4  52797-3 0   246
2 33054 021.5373 264.9674 0198484 049.2612 312.7596 15.92730874  1408

Period     90.78
Incl.     21.54
Apogee 462
Perigee    164

Blobrana · L

GLAST Safely in Orbit, Getting Check-ups
Less than a week after launch, NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, is safely up-and-running well in orbit approximately 565 kilometres above Earth's surface.

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Blobrana · L

Telescope to study gamma rays takes off after two delays
Huntsville's Dr. Chip Meegan watched the culmination of three decades of work blast off Wednesday, but not before some fingernail-biting delays in the countdown.
With less than four minutes to go, a balky U.S. Air Force Caribbean island tracking station in Antigua forced a delay for NASA's $690 million Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope.
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Blobrana · L

The GLAST Mission is part of NASA's Office of Space and Science Strategic Plan. GLAST is a next generation high-energy gamma-ray observatory designed for making observations of celestial gamma-ray sources in the energy band extending from 10 MeV to more than 100 GeV. It follows in the footsteps of the CGRO-EGRET experiment, which was operational between 1991 and 1999.

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Blobrana · L

NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, successfully launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 12:05 p.m. EDT today.
The GLAST observatory separated from the second stage of the Delta II at 1:20 p.m. and the flight computer immediately began powering up the components necessary to control the satellite. Twelve minutes after separating from the launch vehicle, both GLAST solar arrays were deployed. The arrays immediately began producing the power necessary to maintain the satellite and instruments. The operations team continues to check out the spacecraft subsystems.

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