Our sky-eye-guy Bill Westphal says that, with a little luck, there'll be something to see fairly early tomorrow night: a Delta II launch at Vandenberg AFB at 19:28:21 PDT (or 7:28 PM to us civilians). Launch window is one second long, so either it happens or it doesn't. Weather permitting, launch should be visible for 200 miles.
The payload is an Italian COSMO-3 satellite going into near-polar orbit that will take radar images of Earth.
Detailed information about the launch is available at:
http://www.ulalaunch.com/
Boeing will simulcast Friday's launch on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.boeing.com/defense-
Another possible source of countdown status for the launch is the Spaceflight Now web site:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com
On launch day, be sure to regularly hit the refresh button on your browser to see the latest information.
Says Bill:
Evening launches can provide spectacular results depending on the weather and Sunset vs Launch times. You can see some photos of a similar launch in my photo gallery at:
http://www.westphalfamily.com/
The Minotaur launch on that day was at 19:24 hrs.
http://www.westphalfamily.com/
The Minotaur launch on that day was at 19:24 hrs.
(Picture by Bill)
