Fergie's Tech Blog

Experimental Military Microsatellites Reach Orbit

A Spaceflight Now article by Justin Ray, via Space.com, reports that:

An experimental U.S. military project to characterize the performance of two micro-satellite trailblazers operating 22,300 miles (35,888 kilometers) above Earth and a prototype maneuvering motor for small spacecraft began with a beautiful blastoff from Cape Canaveral Wednesday evening.

The Micro-Satellite Technology Experiment, or MiTEx, was successfully delivered into space by Boeing's workhorse Delta 2 rocket. Launch from pad 17A occurred at 6:15 p.m. EDT (2215 GMT) after a short delay to clear both a technical issue with the payload and any boats from the restricted waters under the rocket's flight path.

The swift half-hour ascent by the three-stage rocket put MiTEx into an elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit to mark the 67th consecutive successful Delta 2 mission dating back to 1997 and the 120th success overall in 122 flights since 1989.

posted by Fergie @ 6/22/2006 09:33:00 AM