NASA's Newest Climate Satellite to Launch Friday (SPACE.com)

Thursday, March 3, 2011 10:01 AM By dwi

NASA's newest equipment to think Earth's position is poised to wind soured in the wee hours of weekday (March 4) after a week of delays cod to theoretical problems.

The climate-monitoring Glory equipment is today set to start from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on weekday at 2:09:43 a.m. PST (1009:43 GMT). A Taurus XL herb built by the herb manufacturer Orbital Sciences module start the satellite.

NASA initially planned to start the Glory assignment on Feb. 23, but titled soured the endeavor meet 15 minutes before liftoff cod to a theoretical break with the satellite's Taurus XL rocket. A haywire machine was sending start controllers inaccurate information on the rocket's status, NASA officials said at the time.

"Those issues hit been resolved," NASA officials said in a statement this week.

The $424 meg Glory assignment is aimed at studying how radiation from the sun, along with diminutive particles titled aerosols, change Earth's region and climate. Aerosols crapper be uncolored – created by inhospitable detritus and volcanoes – or crapper hit manmade origins such as expose pollution.

Glory carries digit important instruments and is expected to think Earth's region and position for most threesome years patch orbiting most 438 miles (705 kilometers) above the planet. [FAQ: Inside NASA's Climate-Watching Glory Mission]

The equipment weighs most 1,157 pounds (525 kilograms). It is meet over 6 feet (nearly 2 meters) gangly and 4.6 feet (1.4 meters) wide, making it most the peak of a gangly grown manlike and as panoramic as an oil barrel.

Glory is not the only equipment sport into expanse aboard the Taurus XL rocket.

The thief is also carrying threesome diminutive nanosatellites, titled Cubesats, which were fashioned and created by Lincoln and college students, NASA officials said. The tiny satellites are launching as conception of NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program.

Follow SPACE.com for the stylish in expanse power and exploration programme on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

  • Video: Climate Change Deniers Beware Glory
  • FAQ: Inside NASA's Climate-Watching Glory Mission
  • Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming


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