Fw: NASA'S ICESAT SPACECRAFT ARRIVES AT LAUNCH SITE

[LARRY KLAES]

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Mark Hess

Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2002 9:28 AM

To: News Media list.serv

Subject: NASA'S ICESAT SPACECRAFT ARRIVES AT LAUNCH SITE

 

Lynn Chandler
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Oct. 31, 2002
(Phone: 301-286-2806)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

RELEASE: 02-153

NASA'S ICESAT SPACECRAFT ARRIVES AT LAUNCH SITE

NASA's Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) has arrived
at its California launch site for final preparations leading to a
liftoff this winter. ICESat left Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
in Boulder, Colo., on October 22 on its two-day journey to Vandenberg
Air Force Base, Calif., arriving there on Oct. 24.

"We are delighted to be entering this phase of the program and are
looking forward to the launch in December," said Jim Watzin, ICESat
Project Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in
Greenbelt, Md.

The 2,108 pound spacecraft is the primary payload to be lifted into
orbit aboard a Delta II rocket. The Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma
Spectrometer (CHIPS) satellite, the first in NASA's University-class
Explorers Program designed to examine the interstellar medium, will
fly on the same rocket as a secondary payload.

ICESat will accurately measure the height of the Earth's polar ice
masses, land and ocean surfaces, and clouds and aerosols in the
atmosphere using advanced laser technology. The mission's primary
goal is to quantify ice sheet growth or retreat and to thereby answer
questions concerning many related aspects of the Earth's climate
system, from global warming to changes in sea level.

The ICESat satellite consists of a spacecraft with one instrument,
the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), star trackers, and
on-board GPS. GLAS, a next generation space-lidar, was designed and
built at NASA Goddard.


The spacecraft was developed at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado.
NASA's Kennedy Space Center is providing the expendable Boeing
Corporation Delta II launch vehicle. Mission operations will be
conducted by GSFC and University of Colorado's Laboratory for
Atmospheric and Space Physics.

ICESat is a key component of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS)
program. ICESat will determine whether the polar ice sheets are
growing or shrinking, and how the ice masses may change in future
climate conditions.

For more information on ICESat see:

http://icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov

-end-

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