TAG | Live webcast of NASA IBEX on solar system boundary mission |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Thursday, 16 October 2008 | |
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The October 14, 2008 NASA media advisory “NASA to webcast IBEX spacecraft launch on Pegasus rocket Oct. 19,” states, “The first NASA spacecraft to image and map the dynamic interactions taking place where the hot solar wind slams into the cold expanse of space will be launched on Sunday, Oct. 19, at 1:48 p.m. EDT [Eastern Daylight Time], during a launch window that extends from 1:44 p.m. to 1:52 p.m.” The spacecraft will be launched from the U.S. Army’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site (RTS) at Kwajalein Atoll, which is part of the Marshall Islands in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. The IBEX spacecraft, built by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC), will be carried from the ground into the air by an OSC-owned L-1011 aircraft. The airplane will carry it about 125 miles (210 kilometers) north from Kwajalein. Then, it will be deployed along with a Pegasus XL rocket, which also was built by OSC. The mission of the IBEX spacecraft is to research the physical processing taking place in and around the boundary of the solar system, where the solar wind meets interstellar space, or the interstellar boundary. For additional information on the IBEX mission, please go to the iTWire article “NASA IBEX to see edge of Solar System.” The live streaming video of the countdown and launch will be available on the NASA home page at http://www.nasa.gov. Streaming video and audio coverage will start at 12:15 p.m. EDT on October 19, 2008. It will conclude after spacecraft separation from the Pegasus, about 12 minutes after the launch. For more information about IBEX, please go to the NASA website http://www.nasa.gov/ibex.
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