GLAST Launch

At 12:05 p.m. EDT on 11th June 2008, the Delta II rocket easily lifted the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) spacecraft off the launch pad, out of smoke and clouds and into a beautiful Florida sky headed for space.

The second firing of the second-stage engine was confirmed as was successful spacecraft separation. Applause rippled through the launch control center as separation confirmation was received.

GLAST is now on its own with its solar arrays deployed and placed into a circular orbit 350 miles above the Earth, prepared to monitor the universe and the mysterious gamma-ray bursts.

GLAST is a powerful space observatory that will explore the most extreme environments in the universe, and search for signs of new laws of physics and what composes the mysterious dark matter, explain how black holes accelerate immense jets of material to nearly light speed, and help crack the mysteries of the staggeringly powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts.

With high sensitivity GLAST is the first imaging gamma-ray observatory to survey the entire sky every day. It will give scientists a unique opportunity to learn about the ever-changing universe at extreme energies. GLAST will detect thousands of gamma-ray sources, most of which will be supermassive black holes in the cores of distant galaxies.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• GLAST
• Launch
• Liftoff

[drsheikhjunior]

Bruno do you mind telling me what GLAST means?

[BrunoTheQuestionable]

GLAST stands for Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope.

I'll add it to the description :)

[coolal19]

Bruno,

It appears that one of the solid boosters (starting at :43) didn't ignite. Is that the case or was it just a visual illusion / discrepancy?

Al

[BrunoTheQuestionable]

Well spotted - that was all part of the plan - only 6 of the solid boosters (the ground-start solids) are ignited at liftoff and when they burn out and are ejected, the remaining 3 solid boosters (the air-start solids) are ignited. This is probably necessary to limit the forces on the vehicle.

[Luisvaldez989]

Awesome launch! Now if only NASA put an onboard camera on the 2nd stage...............

[drsheikhjunior]

Thanks Bruno

[mib2259]

Excited as I am about GLAST, I can't help but notice how impressive the Delta II is. It doesn't hang about.

[Aryanpars]

Yay GLAST Is up, now cant wait for LHC to start up :P

[Shadowsnshades]

Awesome!

[Shipra86]

This is a great step towards the understanding of the unexplained.