Sun, Dec 17, 2006
Minotaur I Boosts Experimental Satellites Aloft
An Orbital Sciences Corporation Minotaur I rocket launched from
Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport 07:00 EST on Saturday
morning. Aboard was a USAF TacSat-2 satellite and a NASA
GeneSat-1.
TacSat-2 will help the military quickly transmit digital
imagery among commanders. GeneSat-1 carries a harmless strain of E.
coli bacteria as part of an experiment to study the long-term
effects of spaceflight on living organisms.
Mission director USAF Colonel Samuel McCraw told the Associated
Press, "We can now confirm that both satellites are alive and
kicking. It's still too early to know how they're doing, but both
have woken up and started talking."
Virginia's Commercial Space Flight Authority built the spaceport
on land leased from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia
coast in 1998. Saturday's launch was the facility's first.
Spaceport directory Billie Reed said, "It's been a lot of work,
it's been a long road, but today we showed we can do it. We're in
business for real."
The Minotaur I is built from decommissioned Minuteman ICBMs and
two stages from Pegasus rockets.
A software glitch caused a week-long delay for the launch
originally planned for last Monday. The problem might have
prevented solar panels on the TacSat-2 satellite from properly
orienting to the sun resulting in a rapid depletion of its on-board
batteries.
Colonel McGraw told the Associated Press the delays added "a
couple hundred thousand dollars" to the already considerable
mission costs -- estimated to be $60 million.
The next time you think a $10 landing fee is pretty steep at
your local regional airport remember this: $621,000 of that $60
million mission cost went to the Mid-Atlantic Regional
Spaceport!
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