NASA Successfully Launches the ICESAT/CHIPS Satellites

Photo of ICESat/ChipSat rocket launch

NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation satellite (ICESat) and Cosmic Hot Interstellar Spectrometer (CHIPS) satellite lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif at 7:45 p.m. EST aboard Boeing's Delta II rocket. Separation of the ICESat spacecraft occurred 64 minutes after launch at 8:49 p.m. EST. Initial contact with ICESat was made 75 minutes after launch at 9 p.m. EST as the spacecraft passed over the Svalbard Ground Station in Norway.

The CHIPS spacecraft separated from the launch vehicle 83 minutes after launch at 9:08 p.m. EST. Initial contact with CHIPS was made 98 minutes after launch at 9:23 p.m. EST as the spacecraft passed over the University of California, Berkeley.

"The Delta vehicle gave us a great ride! The ICESat spacecraft was right where we expected and is performing great. The whole team is thrilled to be having such a wonderful start to our mission" said Jim Watzin, the ICESat Project Manager at Goddard. Over the next few days the ICESat spacecraft will gradually be despun and placed into a safe stable attitude. Within two weeks the onboard propulsion system will gradually tune the orbit. Once in its final orbital position, ICESat will be approximately 373 miles (600 kilometers) above the Earth.

ICESat is the latest in a series of Earth Observing System spacecraft, following the Terra satellite launched in December 1999, and the Aqua satellite launched in May of last year. The primary role of ICESat is to quantify ice sheet growth or retreat and to thereby answer questions concerning many related aspects of the Earth's climate system, including global climate change and changes in sea level.

Goddard manages the Earth Observing System for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise in Washington, D.C. More information about the ICESat program is available at: http://ICESat.nasa.gov

CHIPS will study the gas and dust in space, which are believed to be the basic building blocks of stars and planets. The CHIPS satellite, the first NASA University-Class Explorer (UNEX) mission, weighs 131 pounds (60 kilograms) and is the size of a large suitcase. It will orbit above the Earth at about 350 miles (590 kilometers) altitude and is expected to operate for one year.

CHIPS is sponsored by the Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. The project is managed at the Wallops Flight Facility and Goddard through the NASA Explorers Program. The CHIPS instrument was built at the Space Science Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley, and SpaceDev, Inc. of Poway, Calif., built the spacecraft bus.

For detailed information about CHIPS and its mission, go to: http://chips.ssl.berkeley.edu
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2002/1217chips.html