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Five decades of defense weather satellite service LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE NEWS RELEASE Posted: August 3, 2006 "Weather" it's a hurricane, typhoon or thunderstorm in the constantly changing environment of global weather conditions, agencies behind the scenes continually provide data for distribution to Department of Defense and civilian government agencies. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, has been providing outstanding environmental support to the nation for five decades. A DoD program run by the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, DMSP designs, builds, launches and maintains satellites, which monitor the meteorological, oceanographic and solar-terrestrial physics environments. "DMSP satellites are designed to meet unique military requirements for worldwide space and terrestrial weather information; however, this data is fully shared with civilian agencies. Through these satellites and accompanying data, military and civilian weather forecasters can detect developing weather patterns, track existing weather systems over remote areas and alert the civil and military communities of anticipated hazards to people and resources," said Col. John Wagner III, DMSP director. These DMSP satellites provide meteorological data in real time to Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps tactical ground stations and Navy ships worldwide. This data is also stored in recorders on the satellites for later transmission to ground stations. From these ground stations, information is relayed to the Air Force Weather Agency at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., and to the U.S. Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorological and Oceanographic Center at Monterey, Calif., where it is then compiled into numerous worldwide weather and space environmental products. AFWA and FNMOC distribute these products to DoD and civilian government agencies. At the heart of DMSP's sensing capability is the Operational Linescan System. The OLS sensor employs a moving telescope technique to scan the earth in the cross track direction, while forward motion of the satellite provides the along track incremental motion. It is designed to provide pictorial meteorological cloud imagery for continuous global coverage. OLS imagery is used by severe storm forecasters to locate storms and estimate their strength. The Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder is another important mission sensor. The SSMIS utilizes microwave data. This information is considered essential to accurate positioning of storm centers and forecasting storm development and motion because SSMIS wind speed and rainfall rate data are not obscured by cloud cover. Hurricane and typhoon forecasting have improved significantly with the utilization of DMSP microwave imagery. The DMSP constellation is made up of two primary polar orbiting satellites. The next satellite is expected to be launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., in early November 2006. The last three satellites are scheduled to follow in two-year intervals beginning in April 2008 and ending in April 2012. The lifetime for DMSP satellites is four years, so coverage is expected until 2014 to 2016. DMSP will be replaced by a combination of the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System and the European MetOP satellites. |
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Space shuttle Atlantis is delivered to Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39B on August 2 to begin final preparations for blastoff on the STS-115 mission to resume construction of the International Space Station.
Just after 1 a.m. local time August 2, the crawler-transporter began the slow move out of the Vehicle Assembly Building carrying space shuttle Atlantis toward the launch pad.
Astronauts Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter will conduct a U.S.-based spacewalk outside the International Space Station on August 3. To preview the EVA and the tasks to be accomplished during the excursion, station managers held this press conference from Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The long voyage of exploration to Jupiter and its many moons by the Galileo spacecraft began on October 18, 1989 with launch from Kennedy Space Center aboard the space shuttle Atlantis. The crew of mission STS-34 tell the story of their flight to dispatch the probe -- fitted with an Inertial Upper Stage rocket motor -- during this post-flight presentation film.
Space shuttle Atlantis is transported to the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building where the ship will be mated to the external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters for a late-August liftoff.
A camera was mounted in the front of space shuttle Discovery's flight deck looking back at the astronauts during launch. This video shows the final minutes of the countdown and the ride to space with the live launch audio included. The movie shows what it would be like to launch on the shuttle with the STS-121 crew.
A high-altitude WB-57 aircraft flying north of Discovery's launch trajectory captures this incredible aerial footage of the space shuttle's ascent from liftoff through solid rocket booster separation.
This is the full launch experience! The movie begins with the final readiness polls of the launch team. Countdown clocks then resume ticking from the T-minus 9 minute mark, smoothly proceeding to ignition at 2:38 p.m. Discovery rockets into orbit, as seen by ground tracker and a video camera mounted on the external tank. About 9 minutes after liftoff, the engines shut down and the tank is jettisoned as the shuttle arrives in space.
MiTEx -- an experimental U.S. military project to test whether the advanced technologies embedded in two miniature satellites and a new upper stage kick motor can operate through the rigors of spaceflight -- is launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket.