Orbital ATK’s Pegasus XL rocket will take about eight minutes to reach orbit with NASA’s eight CYGNSS weather research microsatellites, then comes deployment of the spacecraft more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) above Earth.
The 51,000-pound (23-metric ton) rocket will drop from the belly of a modified L-1011 carrier plane, named Stargazer, flying on an east-southeast path over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of 39,000 feet (11,900 meters).
The Pegasus rocket, launching on its 43rd orbital mission, will fire three solid-fueled stages in succession, then release the eight Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System spacecraft two at a time.
The images below were recorded from a previous flight.
Data source: NASA/Orbital ATK
T-00:00: Pegasus Drop
T+00:05: First Stage Ignition
T+00:36: Max-Q
T+01:17: First Stage Burnout
T+01:33: First Stage Separation/Second Stage Ignition
Boeing Co. and SpaceX, selected by NASA last month to carry astronauts to the International Space Station, can resume development of their human-rated spacecraft after officials ordered a work stoppage prompted by a protest by Sierra Nevada Corp., the company left out of the contracts.
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off at 0541 GMT (1:41 a.m. EDT) Thursday from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East, carrying a new Russian weather satellite and 32 secondary payloads into polar orbit.
An Indian satellite designed to collect all-weather, day-and-night radar imagery for military and intelligence authorities is scheduled for launch Wednesday on top of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.