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Archive for September, 1999


13-Sep-99 | Next launch

The next Delta launch will be from Cape Canaveral. It will carry the first Navstar GPS satellite to replenish the constellation since November 1997, and the first of 13 set to fly before the end of 2001. Preparations for launch have been put on hold, and workers are securing the launch vehicle, mobile service tower, and all of Complex 17 (as well as KSC and the rest of CCAFS) in expectation of Hurricane Floyd, which may strike Florida as early as Wednesday. Improvements to the 17A white room in the wake of the water impingement in May are complete, although the spacecraft will remain in the Payload Processing Facility until the all-clear is sounded. Any possible delay to the launch schedule is, like the weather, uncertain.


11-Sep-99 | MCO on approach

On 23 September, Mars Climate Orbiter will fire its main engine for approximately 17 minutes to drop out of heliocentric orbit and begin Mars Orbit Insertion. One of two ships in the Mars Surveyor 1998 program, MCO will then perform a two-month aerobraking phase, followed by a full Martian year of observations to better understand the seasonal changes on that planet. It was launched from Cape Canaveral on 11 December, 1998, the 264th launch of a Delta rocket.


     

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