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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.
25-Jan-04 | Opportunity arrives
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (Delta 299, 08-Jul-03) arrived safely on Mars’ Meridiani Planum last night, and soon returned images of a site with sharp contrast: a solid rock outcropping alongside the finest, most powdery soil ever seen on the Red Planet. Once again, as the images roll in, it will take several days to get situated and prepare the rover for roll out. Meanwhile, a few days ago Spirit gave controllers a scare when a software glitch put the rover into a continual-reboot mode. Fortunately it was still responding to commands from Earth, and it is not in immediate danger. The issue will likely delay further Spirit operations for about three weeks.
14-Jan-04 | Aquarius takes the next step
NASA recently announced that the Aquarius mission has been given the go-ahead to begin with “mission formulation,” an early phase of development where planners will determine what exactly they want the spacecraft to accomplish. In general terms, Aquarius will measure global Sea Surface Salinity (SSS), which will help scientists to draw conclusions regarding ocean currents, the water cycle, and the earth’s climate. Aquarius is expected to launch on a dedicated Delta II Med-Lite vehicle in September 2008. (NASA Press Release, 06-Jan-04)
14-Jan-04 | Spirit prepares to roll out
Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is healthy and already returning good science data, but has yet to depart from its landing platform, as rock-snagged airbags are obstructing the primary exit route. As in the case of Sojourner‘s first steps in 1997, the lander itself is the rover’s biggest obstacle. Spirit has cut its last umbilical cable and completed an approximately 120-degree turn, and may roll out early tomorrow morning.
04-Jan-04 | Safe passage, safe landing
It’s been a busy weekend for NASA. On Friday evening, Stardust (Delta 266, 07-Feb-99) cruised smoothly through the tail of comet Wild 2, surviving the encounter with nary a glitch and providing exciting pictures of the comet nucleus. A day later, the innovative sample return mission was overshadowed by Mars Exploration Rover Spirit (Delta 298, 10-Jun-03), which bounced to a safe landing in Gusev Crater. It soon provided black-and-white images of a terrain with little to see visually but, one hopes, plenty to learn scientifically. Colour photos are expected some time later today; the rover will hit the road in about a week.
24-Dec-03 | Christmas eve on Mars
Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, launched aboard Delta 298 in June, will land in Gusev Crater on 4 January 2004. Meanwhile, Mars mavens are watching the Europeans closely, as their Mars Express probe and Beagle 2 lander will reach the Red Planet early Christmas morning.
24-Dec-03 | SIRTF renamed
NASA has announced the new name of SIRTF, jettisoning the ungainly Space Infrared Telescope Facility moniker. The orbiting observatory will now be known as the Spitzer Space Telescope, after Dr. Lyman Spitzer, Jr. (1914-1997).
Dr. Spitzer was “one of the 20th century’s most distinguished scientists [and] made significant contributions to the fields of stellar dynamics, the interstellar medium and plasma physics.” In 1946, he was the first to propose placing telescopes in space to eliminate aberrations caused by the Earth’s atmosphere; his efforts culminated in the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Spitzer Space Telescope has returned its first, astonishingly beautiful images — the future of infrared astronomy is bright and clear. (NASA Press Releases 03-411 and 03-414, 18-Dec-03)
23-Dec-03 | Site availability news
Apologies to anyone who had trouble reaching this site within the past day or so. We can all blame Linksys, whose bad implementation of their updater client was abusing my dynamic DNS provider.
22-Dec-03 | Next launch
The next Delta II launch will be another NAVSTAR satellite, IIR-11. It is currently slated for March 2004.
22-Dec-03 | Stardust getting close
Stardust is moving ever closer to its target, comet Wild 2, and encounter is less than 0 minutes away. Though the comet’s name is pronounced “vilt,” after its Swiss discoverer, this hasn’t kept JPL from releasing news items that make unfortunate use of “wild” clichés (e.g. “Where the Wild Thing Is” and “Catching the Wild Child“).
22-Dec-03 | Delta flight 302 – NAVSTAR IIR-10
Early Sunday morning, 21 December, at 08:05 UTC, the seventh and final Delta II launch of 2003 took NAVSTAR IIR-10 into orbit to continue the replenishment of the Global Positioning System. The chilly Florida air was not a constraint for either the rocket or the payload, and the countdown was typically quiet — until an alarm sounded within the T-minus two minute mark. T-zero was pushed to the end of the window, the alarm was found to be a non-issue, and the countdown resumed to a perfect, daylight-bright liftoff. Delta flight 302 deployed SVN-47 into its proper transfer orbit just over 68 minutes later. (By the way, this reporter slept through it all… but Justin Ray was awake.)
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