From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
NASA TV Coverage Reset for Launch of Newest Earth-Observing Mission
By NASA
Jan 29, 2015 - 3:32:38 PM
NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive mission (SMAP) launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, now is scheduled for
9:20 a.m. EST (
6:20 a.m. PST)
Friday, Jan. 30, with a three-minute launch window. The launch of the United Launch Alliance/Delta II rocket was scrubbed
Thursday
due to a violation of upper-level wind constraints. Launch managers
have initiated a 24-hour recycle. The weather forecast for this launch
window shows a 90 percent chance of favorable conditions.
NASA Television coverage of the launch
Friday will begin at
7 a.m.
SMAP will provide high-resolution, space-based measurements of soil
moisture and its state -- frozen or thawed -- a new capability that will
allow scientists to better predict natural hazards of extreme weather,
climate change, floods and droughts, and help reduce uncertainties in
our understanding of Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles.
The mission will map the entire globe every two to three days for at
least three years and provide the most accurate and highest-resolution
maps of soil moisture ever obtained. The spacecraft's final circular
polar orbit will be 426 miles (685 kilometers), at an inclination of
98.1 degrees. The spacecraft will orbit Earth once every 98.5 minutes
and repeat the same ground track every eight days.
For an updated schedule of prelaunch events and NASA TV coverage, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/1xaYUzD
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