« Appeal to Congress to re-fund NASA science
Comet wrap-up »

Student payload rocket launch delayed

submit to reddit

The rocket launch carrying a student experiment — the one to which BABloggers donated so incredibly generously so that two of those students could witness it — has been delayed a day. The earliest it can get off the ground is Thursday, June 8, at 6:00 a.m. Eastern time. The launch will be webcast live via the Wallops Flight Facility webpage. That’s 3:00 a.m. my time, so I’ll miss it, but some of you who helped fund the kids might be able to watch.

Spacesuit helmet tip to SpaceRef.

June 7th, 2006 5:27 PM by Phil Plait in About this blog, Cool stuff, NASA, Science | 4 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

4 Responses to “Student payload rocket launch delayed”

  1. 1.   Stuart Says:
    June 8th, 2006 at 1:21 am

    Oh I thought, thats a good convenient time for me. 12 noon launch, can use my lunch break to watch it take off, but alas the security filters at work wont let me see it. Aaarrgghhh!

    Also you’d think that even with their budgetary problems NASA could afford a spell checker:

    ‘Also, the above G.M.T. clock might not be accurate due to limitations of internet technoligies.’

  2. 2.   Melusine Says:
    June 8th, 2006 at 5:08 am

    This was the last posted on that webcast page:

    Orion Posted by RCC on 2006-06-08 07:28:41
    T+17minutes Radars report loss of signal, Sub-SEM is in the water. Recovery is in progress.

    Orion Posted by RCC on 2006-06-08 07:23:43
    Launch time: 7:11 a.m.
    Preliminary Apogee: 51 km (31.62 miles)

    Orion Posted by RCC on 2006-06-08 07:17:17
    Parachute deployed

    Orion Posted by RCC on 2006-06-08 07:14:16
    T+ 2 minutes Prelimanry Apogee reached. Descending

    Orion Posted by RCC on 2006-06-08 07:11:17
    7:11 Launch

    Here is the article about the launch specifics.

    Launched early in the morning, the 20-foot rocket is expected to carry the experiments more than 25 miles above the Earth. After descending by parachute and landing in the Atlantic Ocean, the experiments will be recovered and returned to the students later in the day. The students will examine and analyze their experiment data and present their preliminary findings to NASA personnel the following day

    “The students design the experiment, build the hardware, participate in the launch process, support removing the experiments from the payload after launch and recovery, analyze the data and present their results,” said Phil Eberspeaker, chief of the NASA Sounding Rockets Program Office at Wallops. “This will be an experience they remember all their life and hopefully will guide them into science and engineering careers.”

    I didn’t see the launch, but I could have. Didn’t look here in time.

  3. 3.   Melusine Says:
    June 8th, 2006 at 5:24 am

    Somehow that article contradicts the original PDF press release in listing the schools. The PDF release lists Franke Park Elementary School:
    Correct release?

    BTW:

    Orion Posted by RCC on 2006-06-08 08:14:01
    8:12 a.m. The recovery ship has found the payload. After payload recovery, it will be brought back to Wallops in a few honors.[interesting typo] The students will then begin deintegration and payload anaylsis.

    This concludes the coverage of today’s mission.

    Good for them! :-)

  4. 4.   icemith Says:
    June 9th, 2006 at 2:37 am

    I’m disappointed that the web-mail did NOT arrive until after the launch, here in Australia. I caught the note that it had been delayed one day, and juggling the time zone nonsense, ie. no clear idea as to which time of the three- GMT, ATLANTIC or PACIFIC, then re-calculating to East Aust. Standard Time, I figured I still had 30 minutes until launch. Time enough to set up the webcast facility from NASA. Couldn’t make sense of that, with a video of the Atlas launch recently, and intrusion of CBS Webcasts as well. Finally saw the same post as Melusine (#23956),–

    Orion Posted by RCC on 2006-06-08 08:14:01
    8:12 a.m. The recovery ship has found the payload.

    There was no response to the request to view the launch (again), as the site ? had been dismantled it seems.

    I know NASA is having financial restraints imposed upon them, but this event would have to have some importance to the many students interested in the outcome of their experiments, at least leaving it up for at least the whole day. (I mean the launch replay as I guess, (hope), somebody saw it.) Not all kids would have been able to see it live anyway, being on the way to school or asleep in another time zone.

    I also found today the posts as Melusine indicated and cannot understand why it is posted in reverse order. We read left to right, they got that right. but also top to bottom, usually , and time lines follow that way. to allow a comprehensive appreciation of the events, it is very tedious to have to scroll up and down, just to follow sequentially.

    Being the devil’s advocate here, but is it because NASA still has termites in its woodwork, with a son of Deutsch operating in their promotions department?

    Just wondering. ……..( I do really appreciate the hard work of all the conciencious staff, but I feel for you when somebody goofs).

    Ivan.

Leave a Reply