The first opportunity to conduct the mission will be early Tuesday morning, September 22, with daily launch opportunities thereafter. On Tuesday, the available launch window extends from 1:21 a.m. to 1:36 a.m. EDT, with a targeted launch time of 1:29 a.m. EDT. Orbital plans to launch the OrbComm satellites into a circular orbit at an altitude of approximately 820 kilometers inclined at 45 degrees to the equator. The launch schedule is subject to final preparations and testing, as well as acceptable weather conditions at the launch site.

To meet the mission schedule, Orbital's L-1011 Pegasus carrier aircraft is today conducting a cross-country ferry flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, where the satellites, rocket and aircraft were integrated, to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Southeastern coast of Virginia, where the mission will originate. Over the next several days, Orbital's Pegasus team will complete the customary final tests and preparations for the mission.

On the launch day, the mission sequence is planned to take over one hour, from the time the Pegasus rocket is released from its carrier aircraft, about 100 nautical miles off the Virginia coast, to the time that the last of the eight satellites is deployed in orbit as it passes over Western Australia. Following the launch, Orbital expects that it could take up to 24 hours before reliable data can be assembled and reported on the basic status and health of each of the new satellites in the OrbComm network.

Separately, OrbComm Global has begun placing the eight satellites that were launched on August 2 aboard another Pegasus rocket into commercial service well ahead of the expected schedule. Yesterday, OrbComm commissioned the first of the eight spacecraft for commercial service, less than seven weeks after its launch.

OrbComm

SPACEDAILY HEADLINES

Nov 02, 2006