GLAST Rocket Blast Off Successful - All About This Mission…With Launch Video
GLAST (Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope) aims to glimpse the universe in high-energy, short-wavelength gamma ray light and probe mysteries such as dark matter, black holes and spinning pulsars. And scientists hope the $690 million telescope will shed light on some of the most powerful explosions ever seen: gamma ray bursts.
A United Launch Alliance Delta II Heavy launch vehicle has lifted-off with NASA’s next major space observatory, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST).
The Delta II 7920H-10C is the heavy version of the 126 foot high two stage Delta II 7920-10 vehicle, featuring a first stage booster powered by a Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-27A main engine and nine Alliant Techsystems (ATK) strap-on solid rocket motors.
Watch the launch…
Six ground start solids will fire at lift-off, with three air start solids firing later, to assist first stage flight. The vehicle is also sporting a 6915 payload attach fitting and secondary latch mechanism.
This is ULA’s first mission for NASA for 2008 and the second Delta II launch from Cape Canaveral. The earlier Delta launch was GPS IIR-19 in March. Overall, this is the fourth launch for ULA this year.
The GLAST spacecraft will study the universe’s most extreme objects, observing physical processes far beyond the capabilities of earthbound laboratories.
The GLAST observatory utilizes two main instruments, the large area telescope (LAT) and a GLAST burst monitor (GBM). The GLAST LAT will provide unprecedented sensitivity to gamma rays in the energy range of approximately 20 MeV to 300 GeV.
The GLAST burst monitor was selected as a complimentary instrument for the GLAST mission and will be sensitive to X-rays and gamma rays with energies between 8 KeV and 25 MeV.
The combination of the GBM and the LAT provides a powerful tool for studying gamma-ray bursts, particularly for time-resolved spectral studies over a very large energy band.
GLAST’s main instrument, the LAT, operates like a particle detector rather than a conventional telescope. It is 30 times more sensitive (and even more at higher energies) than the best previous missions, enabling it to detect thousands of new gamma-ray sources while extending our knowledge of previously unidentified sources.
It will study how some black holes accelerate matter to near light speed and perhaps even reveal the nature of dark matter. The other instrument, the GLAST GBM, will detect roughly 200 gamma-ray bursts per year. Together with the LAT, the GBM will enable GLAST to make gamma-ray burst observations spanning a factor of a million in energy.
‘These two instruments and the spacecraft have now been integrated and are working together as a single observatory,’ said GLAST project manager Kevin Grady of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
‘The observatory is getting ready for the final testing in the simulated environment of space, so that any problems can be fixed to ensure that it will work when we launch it,’ added Kathleen Turner, the LAT program manager at the United States Department of Energy.
The Department of Energy helped build the LAT in collaboration with other institutions in the United States, France, Italy, Japan, and Sweden. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, built the GBM in collaboration with institutes in Germany.
(NASA)
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I see that the GLAST telescope has been launched today.
How much time might be required before analysis of GLAST data might indicate proof or rejection of Hawking Radiation theory?
This could be critical in determining the safety of the Large Hadron Collider, due to begin collisions later this year.
Unlike what CERN tells the public, the Large Hadron Collider Safety Assessment Group (LSAG) writes that current safety arguments are not valid proof of safety. Micro black holes might be created by the Large Hadron Collider, they might not evaporate, they might grow quickly and we have not been damaged by cosmic rays because cosmic rays pass harmlessly through Earth. CERN also tells the public that a new safety report has been completed, but so far the final report has not been released for review by world’s scientists.
The legal complaint before US Federal Court in Hawaii demands 4 months to review this safety report and a permanent injunction if safety can not be assured to within reasonable industry standards. First hearing is scheduled for June 16, 2008.
Learn more at LHCFacts.org
June 11th, 2008 at 10:34 amGod damn that take off was sexy.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:52 am