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kevinforsyth.net
To Reach the High Frontier: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles
"A valuable contribution to the field of aerospace literature," this book includes an extensive overview of Delta history and development along with chapters on Atlas, Titan, Scout, Space Shuttle, and much more.
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Many other excellent books about spaceflight are recommended here.
Archive for May, 2001
24-May-01 | NASA approves Deep Impact
NASA has approved development of Deep Impact, a robotic spacecraft which will attempt to collide a probe with a comet nucleus in order to study the comet’s interior. A $279 million mission, the seventh* in NASA’s Discovery Program, Deep Impact is slated to launch aboard a Delta II rocket sometime around January 2004. (NASA Press Release, 24-May-01)
22-May-01 | Delta flight 285 – GeoLITE
On Friday, 18 May, Delta flight 285 launched the Geosynchronous Lightweight Technology Experiment (GeoLITE), a test payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. This was the first flight for NRO by a Delta. Delta’s predecessor and sibling, Thor-Agena, was the workhorse for NRO’s Corona program from 1960 to 1972. (As I was out of town during this launch, I recommend you check out Justin Ray’s coverage for Spaceflight Now.)
11-May-01 | GOES-2 shuts down
GOES-2 has been moved into a graveyard orbit and was commanded to shut down its communications system on Saturday, 5 May 2001. Part of the world’s first operational, geosynchronous meteorological satellite system, GOES-2 (Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellite) was launched aboard Delta 131 on 16 June 1977 and was operated by NOAA until 1993. (Spaceflight Now, 8-May-01)
07-May-01 | RXTE finds evidence of frame dragging
An astronomer at Goddard Space Flight Center using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer has found observational evidence that rotating black holes create a whirlpool effect, essentially twisting the fabric of spacetime around them. (NASA Press Release, 30-Apr-01) This may sound like old news, as LAGEOS-1 helped scientists determine much the same thing about the Earth, albeit on a lesser scale, some three years ago. RXTE was launched on Delta 230 in December 1995. (LAGEOS dates back to 1976, aboard Delta 123.)