Delta II Launch

[guppie01 0]

The countdown is ticking along smoothly at Vandenberg Air Force Base for launch just two hours from now at 1:24 p.m. local time (4:24 p.m. EDT; 2024 GMT).

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d341/status.html

G

"Let's do something romantic this Saturday... how bout we bust out the restraints?"
Raddest Ho this side of Jersey #1 - MISS YOU
OMG, is she okay?

[lawrocket 3]

Thanks, Gia. I reckon it will be visible from here in Hanford.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[jmp2liv 0]

Well, it was visible from Newbury Park. At least the contrail (exhaust trail?) was. It was pretty amazing to see it streaking across the sky. The wind blew the remaining trail away pretty quickly.

[lawrocket 3]

Yeah. I saw it from here and it was pretty cool. It did look like the uppers were going strong.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[1969912 0]

When I was a Cal Poly, we went to he top of a big hill nearby to watch a night launch. There were clouds over the launch site below us, so when the thing launched, the cloud layer lit up bigtime. The rocket then emerged from the glowing cloud layer. Really cool.

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[Nutz 0]

I'm curious because I have been watching the satellites lately, which direction did they launch? I don't mean up, cheez, north?

"Don't! Get! Eliminated!"

[lawrocket 3]

From VAFB there are a few different vectors but usually south. VAFB can launch south to a polar orbit and not overfly land until Antartica. This one went past the South pole and headed north up the east coast of Africa.


I myself remember being a student at UC Santa Barbara. In my sophomore year there was a launch a few minutes after sunset. To looking nothrwest from the horzon was darkness until about 60 degrees elevation where the sun sined on the contrail.

It was absolutely breathtaking!

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Nutz 0]

That's interesting. You know, it takes more fuel to launch south from the northern hemisphere. It is marginal but it reduces the amount of payload you may carry to orbit.

"Don't! Get! Eliminated!"

[guppie01 0]

solution for the private sector...

http://www.boeing.com/special/sea-launch/

g

"Let's do something romantic this Saturday... how bout we bust out the restraints?"
Raddest Ho this side of Jersey #1 - MISS YOU
OMG, is she okay?

[lawrocket 3]

This is a pretty cool image.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LaunchAzimuths.jpg

In fact, payloads from Vandenberg are reduced because of the oil platforms as sea for vehicles like the Delta II. A look at the launch blog shows that the six ground-start solid rocket boosters burned out a minutes into the flight, but were kept attached to the vehicle until 1:31 into the flight so they could clear the offshore oil rigs. 3 solid rocket boosters were lit in mid-air to maintain thrust.

If they didn't have to maintain these SRB's for that long they could probably add some more pounds to the payload.

I can't do long division - much less differential equations. And I find this stuff really neat!

My wife is hotter than your wife.