Orbital ATK's Pegasus® rocket successfully launched the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) satellite for NASA.
Orbital ATK's Pegasus® rocket successfully launched the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) satellite for NASA.
The successful launch was the 29th consecutive successful mission for the Pegasus rocket since 1997 and the 43rd overall flight of the world’s first privately developed commercial rocket.
The CYGNSS constellation of eight satellites is a NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Mission that will collect space‐based measurements of the inner core of tropical cyclones.
The CYGNSS constellation will provide scientists and meteorologists with the data necessary to improve tropical cyclone forecasting and tracking methods.
For the first phase of the launch, CYGNSS and the Pegasus rocket were carried into the atmosphere beneath Orbital ATK's "Stargazer" L-1011 carrier aircraft.
They were released from the plane at approximately 39,000 feet, and then the Pegasus motors ignited, carrying CYGNSS to its intended 35 degree orbit so the constellation will be able to survey the mid latitudes where most cyclones form.
Launch! @OrbitalATK’s rocket released from the aircraft and our #CYGNSS hurricane mission is headed to orbit. Watch: https://t.co/KX5g7zfYQe pic.twitter.com/MuydYrsprI— NASA (@NASA) December 15, 2016
The vehicle’s avionics and control systems, solid rocket motors, and composite structures are manufactured at Orbital ATK facilities in Chandler, Arizona; Dulles, Virginia; Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; and Bacchus and Clearfield, Utah.
The solid rocket motors used on Pegasus have also been used in more than 110 other Orbital ATK-built launch vehicles.
These include the company’s Orbital Boost Vehicle (OBV) missile defense interceptors, IRBM- and ICBM-class target vehicles, Minotaur space launch vehicles and Hyper-X hypersonic test boosters.
