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Thursday, October 10, 2002
Missile Launch Scheduled for Monday [Source: Santa Maria Times; Photo by Freq Of Nature]  By Janene Scully / Times Staff WriterVANDENBERG AFB -- The Pentagon will target Monday for the seventh attempt at intercepting a mock warhead with a prototype missile defense system, officials announced Wednesday. A modified Minuteman 2 missile will blast out of an underground silo on the northern portion of Vandenberg Air Force Base during the evening Monday. About 20 minutes after the Vandenberg weapon's departure another modified Minuteman 2 missile will launch from the Kwajalein Missile Range, 4,200 miles southwest of Vandenberg. That weapon will carry the prototype "Exoatmospheric kill vehicle" designed to shoot down long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles. The intercept should take place about 140 miles above the central Pacific Ocean. Military officials are keeping mum about the actual launch times, citing security reasons and a new policy that makes this test more secretive than top-secret spy satellites launches. However, the military has warned boaters to stay out of the Pacific Ocean area located off North Base between 4:01 p.m. and midnight Monday. Mariners notices typically extend longer than the actual launch window. Earlier intercept tests took place between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. For the first time, the Pentagon will employ a SPY-1 radar aboard the U.S. Navy Aegis destroyer USS John Paul Jones Monday to collect data on the target and interceptor. "While the ship's radar will not take part in directing the interceptor to its target, the data gathered will be used to confirm the potential role the SPY-1 radar and the Aegis weapon system could play in a defense against long-range missile targets," the Pentagon said in a written statement. "This will be the first time an Aegis radar is participating in a GMD flight test." The Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which the United States pulled out of in June, prevented the Pentagon from using this radar in earlier tests. A technical problem with the Kwajalein missile delayed this test, which most recently had been planned for late August. This will be the seventh intercept test attempt for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense element's research and development program. The system has logged four successful intercepts and two flops since 1999. Opponents say this system is too costly, won't work and will spark a new arms control race.
Oceanside system has daylong glitch [Source: San Diego Union-Tribune] By Shanna McCord OCEANSIDE – When police Officer John Gisbert pulled over a man driving without a license Monday afternoon, he wanted to find out if the man had any arrest warrants. Gisbert was unable to check because a glitch in the department's aging radio system prevented him from contacting the dispatcher. "I had to hold the radio in the air," said Gisbert, a 10-year veteran of the Oceanside Police Department. "It was still static." Officers say Oceanside Police Department's problem-plagued radio system is getting worse by the day. The failure Monday resulted in intermittent communication between patrol officers and dispatch, said Lt. Doug Timbs, the Police Department's communications manager. The primary channel that links officers with dispatchers who assign their calls and coordinate backup coverage stopped working because a couple of wires that connect to the main radio system came loose, Timbs said. The problem started Monday morning and was not fixed until about 10 p.m. that night. Officers had to use a secondary channel that often receives interference from the Hemet Police Department, he said. The Oceanside department said no 911 calls went unanswered during Monday's outage, but officers may have been unable to ask for information or call for help. "It's upsetting, I have to admit," Gisbert said. Julian Hutzler, president of the Oceanside Police Officers Association, said he is not surprised by Monday's radio system failure. "I'd say there have been seven to 10 failures over the summer months," Hutzler said. The department's radio system is 25 years old and operates on high frequencies that are more prone to interference. New radio systems, such as the ones used by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and the Escondido Police Department, operate on trunked 800-megahertz communication systems, which allow more users to communicate over fewer frequencies. Oceanside recently purchased an 800-megahertz communication system and paid to join the countywide communication system, at a total cost of $8.5 million, city manager Steve Jepsen said. That change is slated for December, Timbs said. Tuesday, October 08, 2002
Monitoring the Space Shuttle Mission STS-112 [Source: NASA; Freq Of Nature]
Space Shuttle Atlantis Launches STS-112 began when Space Shuttle Atlantis successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., at 2:46 p.m. CDT (1946 GMT) Monday. Atlantis and its six-member crew are en route to the International Space Station. While at the station, the STS-112 crew -- Commander Jeff Ashby, Pilot Pam Melroy and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus, Piers Sellers, David Wolf and Fyodor Yurchikhin -- will work with the Expedition Five crew to continue the outward expansion of the orbital outpost. The STS-112 crew will conduct three spacewalks to install the S1 (S-One) Truss and transfer cargo. Atlantis is slated to dock with the station at 10:29 a.m. CDT (1529 GMT) Wednesday. Itinerary Launch: Oct. 7, 2002 12:46 p.m. PDT Docking: Oct. 9, 2002 8:29 a.m. PDT Viewable: Oct. 13, 2002 7:47 p.m. PDT (NNW to N for 1 minute) Viewable: Oct. 15, 2002 7:25 p.m. PDT (NNW to NE for 2 minutes) Undocking: Oct. 16, 2002 6:14 a.m. PDT Landing: Oct. 18, 2002 8:46 a.m. PDT Monitoring the Space Shuttle In the Los Angeles area you can monitor live and re-broadcasts from the Space Shuttle on 448.5MHz which is broadcasting from Mount Wilson. You might also try 145.32MHz, which is operated by employees of TRW in El Segundo and 147.15MHz, operated by employees of JPL in Pasadena. For a comprehensive list of other sites that may be broadcasting the Space Shuttle, check out AMSAT's Shuttle Audio Frequency List. |
