Четыре MMS - Atlas V 421 - Canaveral SLC-41 - 13.03.2015 - 02:44 UTC

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/11/12/magnetic-explosion-probes-make-it-to-the-cape/

Magnetic explosion probes make it to the Cape       
Posted on November 12, 2014 by Justin Ray

CAPE CANAVERAL — Two probes joined an identical pair near their Florida launch site today for liftoff aboard an Atlas 5 rocket in March to study magnetic field explosions in space.
Together, the quartet is NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, or MMS. Launch is slated for March 12.
The spacecraft will fly in a tetrahedron formation, coming within 6 miles of each other, while looping around Earth to image "magnetic reconnections" or explosions in the magnetic field.
"The formation flying," says Brent Robertson, MMS deputy project manager at NASA-Goddard, "is just as hard as going to Mars, in what we are doing in controlling this formation.
"We start out at 100 km (62 miles) apart per spacecraft and bring them in to 10 km (6 miles) apart. We have to have very precise maneuvers to do that with a spinning spacecraft. It is quite challenging."
MMS will fly in an elliptical orbit of 1,600 miles altitude at its closest approach to Earth and extend out to 43,500 miles at its farthest. Later in the mission, the high point will be boosted to 95,000 miles.
"We fly through the region of interest every day and we want to have a good formation of the four spacecraft," said Robertson.
Arriving Oct. 29 was spacecraft "mini-stack No. 1," consisting of two of the four satellites. "Mini-stack No. 2," arrived today. They were shipped by truck fr om NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
The identical spacecraft, fitted with 11 instruments made of 25 sensors, are being readied at the commercial Astrotech payload processing campus in Titusville, Florida.
Extensive final testing, fueling, stacking, uncovering 100 sensors and finally encapsulation in the rocket's nose cone will be completed at Astrotech in the coming months. The spacecraft stack will be transported to the Atlas launch complex about 10 days before liftoff.

It will be the second Atlas 5 launch of the new year, with liftoff planned for 10:44 p.m. EST on March 12. The rocket will be flying in the 421 configuration with a four-meter-diameter nose cone, two strap-on solid-fuel boosters and a single-engine Centaur upper stage.
For launch, each satellite will weigh 3,000 pounds and stand about 4 feet tall and 12 feet wide. Once fully deployed in space, the craft will extend booms, making them about 94 feet tall and 369 feet wide.
"There was a Decadal Survey done and MMS was deemed a high priority to understand the physical process known as magnetic reconnection. This process occurs throughout the universe. It occurs when solar flares erupt from the sun, it occurs in planet formation and it occurs here on Earth in fusion reactors," Robertson said.
Magnetic reconnection happens when magnetic field lines break and reconfigure, releasing an explosive burst of energy. As the tetrahedron loops around Earth, it will measure in three dimensions the characteristics of magnetic reconnections.
"The best place to study magnetic reconnection is wh ere we are going — in Earth's magnetosphere — to understand why it happens and how it happens. (MMS) is basically a research mission to understand this process," said Robertson.

[ZOOR]

Круто, что сказать.
Интересно, "запасной план" на случай отказа одного-двух из тетраэдра имеется?

[KBOB]

ZOOR пишет:
Круто, что сказать.
Интересно, "запасной план" на случай отказа одного-двух из тетраэдра имеется?

MMS 1 (John)
MMS 2 (Paul)
MMS 3 (George)
MMS 4 (Ringo)
какое отношение они имеют к Ливерпульской четверке?

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/02/05/atlas-5-rocket-starts-assembly-for-nasa-launch-in-march/

Atlas 5 rocket assembly starts for NASA launch in March       
Posted on February 5, 2015 by Justin Ray


CAPE CANAVERAL — The Atlas rocket to launch four formation-flying spacecraft for NASA in March began to take shape Wednesday at the assembly building adjacent to the Complex 41 pad.
The United Launch Alliance-made rocket will haul the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, or MMS, satellites into orbit to study magnetic field explosions.
Liftoff is targeted for March 12 during a 30-minute launch window opening at 10:44 p.m. EST (0344 GMT) fr om Cape Canaveral.
Putting the two-stage rocket together got underway Wednesday morning as ULA workers brought the bronze-colored first stage to the Vertical Integration Facility for stacking operations.
By late morning, the booster was secured aboard its mobile launcher, anchored on small supports that protrude from the platform. At liftoff, explosive bolts free the rocket and those supports will retract into the platform walls as the vehicle powers its way off the pad.
Known as the Common Core Booster, the stage was pulled by a semi-truck up the road from the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center high bay to the 30-story VIF building wh ere workers attached lifting cranes. The 106.6-foot-long stage was rotated vertical, then maneuvered into the building and stood upright on the mobile platform.
The stage is equipped with a dual-nozzle RD-180 main engine that will burn kerosene fuel and supercold liquid oxygen during the initial minutes of flight.
On Friday and continuing early next week, a pair of solid rocket boosters will be mounted on the north- and south-sides of the first stage.
Giving the rocket an added kick off the launch pad are solid-propellant boosters made by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Considered the world's longest monolithic — or single-segment — solid boosters, the motors provide the extra thrust needed to increase the Atlas 5's payload-carrying capacity.
Each booster stands 67 feet tall, has a diameter of just over five feet and weighs 102,000 pounds at launch. The slender white rockets have a lightweight graphite epoxy casing with an erosion-resistant insulation. The solid fuel is high-performance class 1.3 HTPB propellant.
Also upcoming will be installation of the interstage adapter that tappers the 12.5-foot diameter first stage to the 10-foot-wide Centaur upper stage.
The cryogenic upper stage will be hoisted atop the interstage on Feb. 11 to complete the basic buildup of the Atlas 5.
Centaur's single RL10 engine, fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, will perform the necessary burns to achieve orbital velocity and then shape the orbit for deployment of MMS.
The stage is 41.5 feet in length and also houses the navigation unit that serves as the rocket's guidance brain.
The rocket is known as the 421 configuration of the multi-variant Atlas 5 family, which is tailored with strap-on solid boosters and different sized nose cones to match the cargo's mass and size.
The four MMS spacecraft arrived from the Goddard Space Flight Center on Oct. 29 and Nov. 12 and have since undergone preflight testing at the Astrotech processing facility in Titusville.
The satellite will be encapsulated in the rocket's nose cone at the end of this month in preparation for delivery to the VIF and mounting atop the Centaur in early March to finish assembly of the 195-foot-tall launcher.
"Processing remains on pace for a targeted March 12 launch," a NASA spokesman says.
Rollout to the launch complex occurs the day before liftoff as the 1.4-million pound platform rides the rail tracks 1,800 feet from the VIF to the pad.
It will be the 53rd Atlas 5 launch and the second this year.

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/02/18/magnetic-laboratory-being-readied-for-launch/

Magnetic field laboratory being readied for launch       
Posted on February 18, 2015 by Justin Ray

Credit: Walter Scriptunas II
 
TITUSVILLE — A stack of four satellites, each one carrying 25 science sensors and together will perfect the art of formation flying, is being packaged inside an Atlas 5 rocket nose cone in preparation for mounting atop the booster next week.
The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, or MMS, will explore explosions in the Earth's magnetic field after its March 12 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
"This is the culmination of hundreds of people's work. It's been a decade of focus for the science team finally coming to fruition. We're very anxious to launch," said Craig Tooley. the MMS project manager from NASA-Goddard.
"The flow has gone very, very smooth," Tooley added.
Now fueled with hydrazine and mated in a "super stack" for launch, crews from United Launch Alliance are preparing to encapsulate the satellites on Monday.
"We are stacked, we are fueled, we're ready to go," said Brent Robertson, MMS deputy project manager at NASA-Goddard.
Given the towering height of the stack, the extra-extended payload fairing will be used for this launch to enclose the satellites during the climb through Earth's atmosphere.
One last chore before sealing up the spacecraft for liftoff will see protective covers removed from the satellites.
"It's actually quite an involved process. There's over 700 items that have to be removed from the spacecraft before we fly. Of course, we want to very, very careful to make sure we don't miss anything. That activity will take the next four days," Robertson said.

Credit: Walter Scriptunas II
 
Next, the payload will be transported by road from the commercial Astrotech processing campus in Titusville to the Air Force station at Cape Canaveral to join the awaiting Atlas 5 rocket. The move is planned for next Thursday, Feb. 26.
The Atlas 5, flying in the 421 configuration, will feature a pair of strap-on solid motors to lift MMS into a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth. The orbit will be shaped by two firings of the Centaur upper stage.
It will be the 53rd Atlas 5 flight and the 12th for NASA.
"If you take an MMS with its booms out, it's about the same size as a baseball diamond," said Tooley.
"We have them spinning at three RPM with these long wires, and we have to carefully fire our rockets to maneuver them to adjust the attitude and the orbit. We have four of them in very similar but different orbits."
The flight dynamics is the most challenging project Goddard has ever flown, Tooley said.
"This is a pretty difficult mission. That is why it was built in-house at Goddard. Most missions have a contractor."
The mission will study magnetic reconnections, which happens when magnetic field lines break and reconfigure, releasing an explosive burst of energy. As the formation-flying satellites loop around Earth, they will measure in three dimensions the characteristics of magnetic reconnections.
"It's really a flying laboratory," Tooley said.

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/02/17/photos-atlas-5-rocket-assembled-for-nasa-satellite-launch/

Photos: Atlas 5 rocket assembled for NASA satellite launch       
Posted on February 17, 2015 by Justin Ray
       
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket that will hurl the four MMS satellites into a highly elliptical Earth orbit on March 12 has completed its basic build up at Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 Vertical Integration Facility. The spacecraft will fly in formation for the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission to gain new insights into the connections and disconnections of the lines in Earth's magnetic field.
The rocket will fly in the 421 configuration, which features the Common Core Booster powered by an RD-180 main engine, two strap-on solid motors and a single-engine Centaur upper stage.
Photo credit: NASA-KSC

          

[/li]
• AV-053
• Complex 41
• mms
• NA
  

[che wi]

NASA_LSP ‏@NASA_LSP  6m ago

MMS secured inside payload fairing, to move to launch pad Thursday for March 12 launch at 10:44 p.m.

[che wi]

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/02/27/four-satellites-mated-to-atlas-5-rocket/

Four satellites mated to Atlas 5 rocket       
Posted on February 27, 2015 by Justin Ray    


 CAPE CANAVERAL — Four NASA satellites that will create a constellation of formation-flying spacecraft were placed aboard their shared United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Friday.
Liftoff of the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, or MMS, is targeted for March 12 at 10:44 p.m. EDT (0244 GMT), the opening of a 30-minute nighttime launch opportunity.
Already encapsulated in the rocket's 45-foot-long, 14-foot-diameter nose cone, the quartet of satellites traveled by road overnight, leaving Building 9 at the commercial Astrotech processing campus in Titusville at 1:30 a.m. and arriving at the Atlas 5 assembly hangar at Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 at 4:13 a.m. EST.
Once at the building, dubbed the Vertical Integration Facility, crews went to work affixing a crane to the payload for hoisting atop the Atlas 5. MMS was lifted through the doorway and set aboard the Centaur upper stage to complete stacking of the 195-foot-tall rocket.
"The team is in high spirits and ready to get these technological marvels in space," said Craig Tooley, MMS project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The rocket's two stages, interstage and two solid boosters were assembled together in a sequence between Feb. 4 and Feb. 12, with the Centaur upper stage going up last.
Upcoming, ULA and NASA will run an integrated systems test that serves as a tip-to-tail electrical checkout of the combined rocket and satellites. Then the final closeouts of the various rocket compartments and fairing will occur to botton up the Atlas 5 for flight.
Rollout to the launch pad is slated for March 11, the day before liftoff. The countdown begins on launch day at 3:54 p.m. EDT, with fueling slated to start at 8:30 p.m. EDT.
It will be the 635th launch of an Atlas vehicle, the 341st from Cape Canaveral and the 201st Atlas-Centaur rocket.
The MMS mission will study the phenomenon of magnetic reconnection in Earth's magnetosphere. It is an explosive process that scientists aren't sure how it is triggered or why the next one will happen.
"Magnetic reconnection is the process of disconnecting or connecting the magnetic fields to each other, directing energy into the Earth on the day-side and letting it go on the night-side," said Tom Moore, MMS senior project scientist.
"The interplay between those two is what produces all of the space weather around the Earth that can have big effects — can damage our spacecraft, hurt astronauts, upset the flow of electrical energy in our electrical grid on the surface of the Earth."

[che wi]

Фото в заметке у Джастина, похоже с прошлогоднего запуска CLIO

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/03/06/flight-readiness-review-passed-for-next-weeks-atlas-5-launch/

Flight Readiness Review passed for next week's Atlas 5 launch       
Posted on March 6, 2015 by Justin Ray

CAPE CANAVERAL — The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket and NASA's four MMS satellite probes passed their Flight Readiness Review today that assessed the progress of work and affirmed plans to launch next Thursday night.

There are no major constraints from the FRR and the "go" was given to press ahead with launch week.
Technicians mated the Magnetospheric Multiscale satellite quartet atop the Atlas-Centaur rocket last Friday morning. The Integrated Systems Test to verify good compatibility between rocket and payload was performed on Tuesday, followed by standalone testing of MMS on Wednesday.
The status of the launch campaign, testing results and work schedules were reviewed today in the FRR. The meeting culminated with approval to continue with pre-flight preparations to next Tuesday's Launch Readiness Review.
That LRR is designed to wrap up any lingering issues and give the okay to transfer the Atlas 5 to the pad at Complex 41, which is scheduled on Wednesday morning.
Liftoff remains targeted for next Thursday at 10:44 p.m. EDT.

See our earlier MMS coverage.

[Liss]

Зоны:

NAVAREA IV 179/15
 WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC.
 ROCKETS.
 1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS 130244Z TO 130347Z MAR,
 ALTERNATE 140240Z TO 140343Z MAR
 IN AREAS BOUND BY:
 A. 28-38N 080-37W, 28-38N 080-35W,
 28-36N 080-03W, 28-34N 079-43W,
 28-29N 079-43W, 28-32N 080-35W.
 B. 28-26N 078-04W, 28-23N 077-33W,
 28-15N 077-34W, 28-18N 078-07W.
 C. 23-52N 054-54W, 22-52N 051-43W,
 22-39N 051-47W, 23-40N 054-58W.
 2. CANCEL THIS MSG 140443Z MAR 15.//
 Authority: EASTERN RANGE OP A4989 021916Z MAR 15.
 Date: 090346Z Mar 15
 Cancel: 14044300 Mar 15

[che wi]

Прогноз – 70% на благоприятные погодные условия
http://www.patrick.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-070716-027.pdf

[che wi]

ULA ‏@ulalaunch  7m ago

The ULA #AtlasV with @NASA_MMS rolls to the launch pad! #MMS #MagRecon

[che wi]

[Salo]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/03/10/atlasmms-launch-timeline/

Atlas/MMS launch timeline       
Posted on March 10, 2015 by Justin Ray

CAPE CANAVERAL — This is the ascent timeline to be followed by the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in launching NASA's MMS mission on March 12 at 10:44 p.m. EDT.

T+0:00:00.0    Liftoff
 
 With the RD-180 main engine running, the twin strap-on solid rocket boosters are lit as the Atlas 5 vehicle lifts off and begins a vertical rise away from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

T+0:01:02.5: Max Q

The Atlas rocket passes through the region of maximum dynamic pressure during ascent through the lower atmosphere.

T+0:02:18.6    Jettison SRBs

Having burned out of propellant approximately 45 seconds earlier, the spent solid rocket boosters are jettisoned to fall into the Atlantic Ocean.

T+0:04:09.7    Main Engine Cutoff

The RD-180 main engine completes its firing after consuming its kerosene and liquid oxygen fuel supply in the Atlas first stage.

T+0:04:15.7    Stage Separation

The Common Core Booster first stage of the Atlas 5 rocket separates from the Centaur upper stage. Over the next few seconds, the Centaur engine liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen systems are readied for ignition.

T+0:04:25.7    Centaur Ignition 1

The Centaur RL10 engine ignites for the first of two upper stage firings. This burn will inject the Centaur stage and MMS spacecraft into an initial parking orbit.

T+0:04:33.7    Nose Cone Jettison

The payload fairing that protected the MMS spacecraft during launch is separated once heating levels drop to predetermined limits after passage through the atmosphere.

T+0:13:29.0    Centaur Cutoff 1

The Centaur engine shuts down after arriving in a planned low-Earth parking orbit. The vehicle enters a 59-minute coast period before arriving at the required location in space for the second burn.

T+1:12:29.8    Centaur Ignition 2

A final push by Centaur is ignited to raise the orbit for the MMS spacecraft into a highly elliptical Earth orbit.

T+1:18:11.3    Centaur Cutoff 2

The powered phase of flight is concluded as the Centaur reaches the planned orbit of 316 by 37,886 nautical miles and 28.77 degrees inclination.

T+1:32:11.3    MMS-4 Separation

The first Magnetospheric Multiscale observatories is separated into orbit.

T+1:37:11.3    MMS-3 Separation

The second Magnetospheric Multiscale observatories is separated into orbit.

T+1:42:11.3    MMS-2 Separation

The third Magnetospheric Multiscale observatories is separated into orbit.

T+1:47:11.3    MMS-1 Separation

The fourth Magnetospheric Multiscale observatories is separated into orbit from the Centaur upper stage to complete the launch.

[us2-star]

Трансляция: http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/03/12/mms-mission-status-center/

[ZOOR]

Молодец Центавр, молодцы НАСА - многоспутниковая миссия - это очень интересно.

С успешным началом!

[ВВК]

1-я ступень отработала

[ВВК]

И уже без ГО