NuSTAR Scheduled for Launch on Pegasus XL Rocket June 13

[KSC News Center <ksc@mediaservices.nasa.gov>]

June 6, 2012

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
george.h.diller@nasa.gov

J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-4673
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

Barry Beneski
Orbital Sciences Corp.
703-406-5528
beneski.barron@orbital.com

MEDIA ADVISORY: M26-12

NUSTAR SCHEDULED FOR LAUNCH ON PEGASUS XL ROCKET JUNE 13

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array 
(NuSTAR) is scheduled for launch Wednesday, June 13, 2012. The 
four-hour launch window opens at 11:30 a.m. EDT. A Pegasus XL rocket 
built by Orbital Sciences Corporation will carry the NuSTAR 
spacecraft into orbit. 

The two-year mission will begin from the U.S. Army's Reagan test site 
at Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific 
Ocean. After departure of the Orbital L-1011 carrier aircraft, the 
Pegasus with NuSTAR will be launched over the Pacific at an altitude 
of 39,000 feet. The launch location will be 117 nautical miles south 
of Kwajalein at a latitude of 6.75 degrees north of the equator. 
Spacecraft separation from the Pegasus rocket occurs 13 minutes, 12 
seconds after deployment from the L-1011.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission that will allow international 
astronomers to study the universe in high-energy X-rays. It will be 
the first focusing hard X-ray telescope to orbit Earth and will 
dramatically improve sensitivity and imaging capability over previous 
space missions that have observed this region of the electronic 
magnetic spectrum.

NuSTAR's X-ray telescope will undertake a broad range of scientific 
investigations. For example, NuSTAR will observe the Milky Way to 
search for the remnants of exploded stars, such as white dwarfs, 
neutron stars and black holes that radiate at high energies. Using 
the penetrating power of high-energy X-rays, NuSTAR will peer deep 
into dusty galaxies to find the billion-solar-mass black holes that 
reside in the galactic centers. Other targets range from galaxy 
clusters -- the largest-known gravitationally bound structures in the 
Universe -- to our own Sun.

This will be the 41st launch of an Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket.

PRELAUNCH MEDIA NEWS CONFERENCE AND TELECON

Monday, June 11: A NuSTAR prelaunch briefing for media will be held at 
3 p.m. (noon PDT) at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University 
of California, Berkeley. Participants will include principals 
associated with the NuSTAR spacecraft, the mission's science 
objectives, the launch countdown and the flight of the Pegasus XL. 
Local-area reporters are invited to attend in person. To do so, 
contact Robert Sanders at the University of California, Berkeley, at 
rlsanders@berkeley.edu.

Media not in attendance and wishing to ask questions will be able to 
do so using a dial-in interface. For dial-in information, media 
representatives should email their name, affiliation and telephone 
number to J.D. Harrington at j.d.harrington@nasa.gov. Live audio of 
the teleconference is at http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio. Graphics 
presented during the teleconference will be online at 
http://1.usa.gov/nustar shortly before the event starts.

WORLD WIDE WEB AND VOICE CIRCUIT COVERAGE

A prelaunch webcast for the NuSTAR mission will be streamed on 
Tuesday, June 12, at noon. To view the prelaunch webcast and to learn 
more about NuSTAR, visit the mission home page at:

http://www.nasa.gov/nustar

Wednesday, June 13: Live coverage of the launch of NuSTAR aboard the 
Pegasus rocket from the Kwajalein Missile Range will be provided via 
the Web beginning at 10 a.m. (7 a.m. PDT). Launch coverage features 
live updates as countdown milestones occur, as well as streaming 
video clips highlighting launch preparations. The live streaming 
video of the countdown and launch can be found on the NASA home page 
at http://www.nasa.gov with an associated blog at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/launch/launch_blog.html

Audio only of the launch programming will be available on the "V" 
circuits that may be dialed directly at 321-867-1220, 1240 or 1260. 
"Mission Audio" of countdown activities without NASA launch 
commentary will be carried on 321-867-7135 beginning at 9:15 a.m. 
(6:15 a.m. PDT).

Coverage will conclude after spacecraft separation from the Pegasus 
rocket and after the NuSTAR solar arrays have deployed, approximately 
20 minutes after launch. A post-launch news release will be issued 
providing the spacecraft's state of health within one hour after 
launch.

LOCAL NEWS MEDIA ACCESS AVAILABLE AT KSC FOR LAUNCH COVERAGE

Local media may monitor the countdown for the launch of NuSTAR from 
the viewing room of the NASA Mission Director's Center located on 
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Media wishing to do so should be at 
the KSC press site at 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday, June 13, for 
transportation to NASA Hangar AE. Media will be returned to the press 
site after launch. For additional information, contact George Diller 
at 321-867-2468.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of 
Technology and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both in 
Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The 
spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va. Its 
instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the 
University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; 
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish 
Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR 
will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency 
providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. 
The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, 
Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed 
by Caltech for NASA.

Launch management and government oversight for the mission is the 
responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space 
Center in Florida. Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., is NASA's 
launch service provider of the Pegasus XL rocket. Orbital is also the 
designer and builder of the NuSTAR spacecraft.

For more information about NuSTAR, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nustar 

	
-end-



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