Orbital Sciences is on track to launch the next batch of eight OrbComm data communications satellites aboard a Pegasus XL rocket next week, the company announced today. The eight spacecraft to be launched on this mission will bring the total number of satellites deployed for the OrbComm network to 28. The launch also represents the fourth Pegasus mission in 1998 and the 23rd mission overall for the innovative airborne space launch system.
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.
