Antares Launch Update

Orbital Sciences Corporation has confirmed the next launch attempt of its
Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is
scheduled for Saturday, April 20, with a target launch time of 5 p.m. EDT.
There is a 90 percent chance of favorable weather at the time of launch.
NASA TV coverage of the launch will begin at 4:30 p.m. If needed, a
back-up launch opportunity is available Sunday, April 21.

Antares Launch Update

Orbital has confirmed the next opportunity to test launch its Antares
rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia will be no earlier
than 5 p.m. EDT on Saturday, April 20.

NASA TV coverage of the launch will begin at 4:30 p.m. By the time
coverage starts, the launch window will likely have been reduced to 10-15
minutes.


An attempt Friday was called off after review of the weather forecast.
Saturday�s forecast indicates an 85 percent chance of favorable
conditions. If needed, a back-up launch opportunity is available on Sunday.


For an updated briefing and NASA TV coverage schedule, follow:
http://www.nasa.gov/orbital.

Cousin's Wedding~

Cameron with his niece.

Antares Launch Reschedule

Orbital Sciences Corporation has confirmed the next probable attempt to test launch its Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., will be no earlier than Friday, April 19, at 5 p.m. EDT.

NASA Television will begin live coverage of the second launch attempt beginning at 4:30 p.m."

NASA - X-48 Project Completes Flight Research

NASA's remotely piloted X-48C hybrid-wing-body subscale aircraft, which demonstrates technology concepts for cleaner and quieter commercial air travel, completed an eight-month flight research campaign on April 9, 2013.

In this image, the aircraft flies over the intersection of several runways adjacent to the compass rose on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base during one of the sub-scale aircraft's final test flights on Feb. 28, 2013.

The scale-model aircraft, shaped like a manta ray, was designed by The Boeing Co., built by Cranfield Aerospace Limited of the United Kingdom, and flown in partnership with NASA. The X-48C is a version of NASA's X-48B blended wing body aircraft modified to evaluate the low-speed stability and control of a low-noise version of a notional hybrid-wing-body design. This design features a flattened fuselage with no tail, and engines mounted on top of the fuselage at the rear of the plane. The design stems from concept studies for commercial aircraft that could be flying within 20 years. The studies are under way in NASA's Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project.

NASA'S Newest Solar Satellite Arrives at Vandenberg AFB for Launch

NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Tuesday, April 16, to begin its final preparations for launch currently scheduled no earlier than May 28. IRIS will improve our understanding of how heat and energy move through the deepest levels of the sun’s atmosphere, thereby increasing our ability to forecast space weather. Following final checkouts, the IRIS spacecraft will be placed inside an Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket. Deployment of the Pegasus from the L-1011 carrier aircraft is targeted for 7:27 p.m. PDT at an altitude of 39,000 feet at a location over the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg AFB off the central coast of California south of Big Sur.

“IRIS will contribute significantly to our understanding of the interface region between the sun's photosphere and corona,” said Joe Davila, IRIS mission scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “This region is crucial for understanding how the corona gets so hot.”
IRIS carries a single instrument, a multi-channel imaging spectrograph with an ultraviolet (UV) telescope that will help scientists better understand the physical processes in the sun’s interface region.
“With the high-resolution images from IRIS, scientists will be able to use advanced computer models to unravel how matter, light, and energy move from the sun’s 6,000 Kelvin surface to its million Kelvin corona,” said Eric Ianson, IRIS mission manager at NASA Goddard. “Scientists will be able to combine data from NASA’s IRIS and Solar Dynamics Observatory and the NASA/JAXA Hinode missions to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the sun’s atmosphere.”
IRIS is a NASA Small Explorer mission. The program provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space using innovative, streamlined and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics areas.
NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., is responsible for launch management. Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif., designed and built the IRIS spacecraft and instrument. NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., is responsible for mission operations and ground data systems.
For more information about NASA's IRIS mission, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/iris

Accurate pointing by Curiosity

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover targeted the laser of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument with remarkable accuracy for assessing the composition of the wall of a drilled hole and tailings that resulted from the drilling. This graphic diagrams the pointing and shows the resulting pits created by the laser shots.

On the 180th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Feb. 6, 2013), the rover performed a "mini drill test," followed on Sol 182 (Feb. 8, 2013) by the actual drilling to collect a sample from the interior of the rock. Both holes in the target rock "John Klein" are visible in the image at upper left, taken on Sol 182 by the rover's Navigation Camera (Navcam). Both the Navcam and the ChemCam are at the top of the Curiosity's remote-sensing mast.

Each drilled hole is about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide, and they are located about 8 feet (about 2.5 meters) away from the top of the mast. So small, so far away…

On Sol 227 (March 26, 2013), ChemCam fired its laser 150 times (5 bursts of 30 shots, each burst at a different target point) on the drill tailings between the two holes and 300 times (10 bursts of 30 shots) in the drill hole itself. The same day, ChemCam's remote micro-imager (RMI) captured images of the laser pits: small craters in the loose tailing (center photo from RMI), and tiny scrapes on the hard surface of the hole walls (photo at right from RMI). Composition spectra from the ChemCam laser inspection are under investigation.

Antares Test Flight Scheduled for April 17

Orbital Sciences Corp. completed roll-out of the first fully-integrated Antares rocket to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Saturday, April 6. Orbital has confirmed an April 17 target launch date for the rocket test flight with a planned liftoff of 5 p.m. EDT. Orbital is testing the Antares rocket under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. NASA initiatives like COTS are helping develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the space station and low-Earth orbit.