Tuesday, January 28, 2003

ORBITAL'S PEGASUS ROCKET SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES NASA'S SORCE SATELLITE There are different ways to loft items to space. One way Orbital Sciences Corp. does it is to drop a Pegasus rocket from an L-10ll carrier aircraft, then start the rocket and head to orbit. -- SORCE Mission Was 32nd Flight of Air-Launched Pegasus Rocket and Its 18th Consecutive Success -- (Dulles, VA 27 January 2003) - Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) announced that on Saturday, January 25, it successfully launched the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) satellite into its targeted orbit aboard the company's Pegasus® rocket. The 315 kilogram (693 pound) SORCE scientific satellite, which Orbital also designed and built at its Dulles, Virginia, satellite manufacturing facility, was accurately delivered into its targeted orbit approximately 640 kilometers (400 miles) above the Earth, inclined at 40 degrees to the equator. More information about Orbital can be found at http://www.orbital.com http://lasp.colorado.edu/sorce/ The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) is a NASA-sponsored satellite mission that will provide state-of-the-art measurements of incoming x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, near-infared, and total solar radiation. The measurements provided by SORCE specifically address long-term climate change, natural variability and enhanced climate prediction, and atmospheric ozone and UV-B radiation. These measurements are critical to studies of the Sun; its effect on our Earth system; and its influence on humankind. http://lasp.colorado.edu/sorce/sorce_img2.jpg       8:59:41 PM    comment []