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Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington, DC
Phone: 202-358-1753

December 7, 2001 - RELEASE NO. 01-116

TIMED SPACECRAFT LAUNCHES, RELAYS FIRST SIGNAL TO CONTROLLERS ON EARTH

A new NASA spacecraft that will study the effects of the sun and human-induced activities on the least explored and understood region of Earth's atmosphere soared into a clear early morning California sky today.

The TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) spacecraft lifted off from the Western Range of Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., aboard a Delta II rocket at 10:07 a.m. EST. Spacecraft separation from the Delta II rocket's second stage motor occurred at 12:13 p.m. EST, inserting TIMED into a 388-mile (625-kilometer) circular orbit around the Earth.

At 1:10 p.m. EST, controllers at the TIMED Mission Operations Center of The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., made contact with TIMED as it passed over a ground station in Kiruna, Sweden, confirming that solar arrays deployed, providing power to the spacecraft.

"Three hours is a long time to hold your breath," said TIMED Project Manager Bruce Campbell at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., "and we're pleased with the way things look right now."

Solar array deployment occurred immediately following spacecraft separation. During the next 30 days or so, controllers will turn the four instruments on and check them out prior to starting science observations. TIMED should be ready to begin its global study of the MLTI region in mid-January 2002.

"TIMED will provide a very important benchmark for future studies of both natural and human-induced changes to the Earth's atmosphere, said Sam Yee, TIMED project scientist at APL. "TIMED's measurements will help scientists understand how the region's composition is affected by contaminants that are released into Earth's atmosphere and by solar energy entering this region."

The TIMED mission is sponsored by NASA's Office of Space Science in Washington, D.C., and managed by the Solar Terrestrial Probes Program Office at Goddard. APL designed, built and will operate the TIMED spacecraft and lead the science effort for NASA.

More information about the TIMED mission is available on the following web sites:
http://stp.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/timed/timed.htm
http://www.timed.jhuapl.edu