[http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html is now showing this launch for an unspecified date in November.] NASA Plans October Launch for Two More A-Train Satellites Aviation Week & Space Technology 10/10/2005, page 69 Frank Morring, Jr. Washington [EXCERPTS] NASA plans a launch as early as Oct. 26 of two more "cars" in the orbiting "A-train," a close formation of Earth-observing spacecraft that deliver complementary measurements of the same environmental phenomena. The two new satellites--CloudSat and Calipso (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations)--will track only 15 sec. apart on the 483-mi. circular Sun-synchronous A-train orbit. That will allow them to study the same column of atmosphere with different instruments. The $200-million CloudSat will come first in the sequence, trailing NASA's Aqua water-measurement satellite by 30-120 sec. to complement its measurements as well. When combined with the A-train constellation, which takes about 10 min. to pass a given point above the atmosphere, the synergy is even broader. Aqua, launched May 4, 2002, gathers data on the Earth's water cycle with six instruments. Once they reach orbit, CloudSat and Calipso will add detail to those measurements from their positions next in line. [Figure caption] A-train satellites in this artist's concept will be, from left, Aura, Parasol, Calipso, CloudSat, Aqua and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which will lead the formation after its planned launch in 2008. Next up is a CloudSat/Calipso launch no earlier than Oct. 26. It will take [CloudSat and Calipso] 20-30 days to reach their final orbit and begin the formation flying that will see them adjust position relative to each other as often as once a day. Full operations should be reached within about 45 days... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Oct 16 2005 - 09:47:12 EDT