Space Science and Engineering Laboratory

The Taurus XL carrying NASA’s Glory Spacecraft and Montana State University’s Explorer-1 [Prime] “hitchiker” CubeSat remains on the ground.  The satellites are safely tucked away within the fairing atop the Launch vehicle on the launch pad at Vandenberg AFB. The February 23rd early morning launch attempt was scrubbed owing to a technical issue. NASA engineers continue to troubleshoot a malfunction in ground support equipment associated with the Taurus XL rocket.  No official new launch date has been announced.  For the latest launch news tweets check out NASA’s Launch Services Program tweets at http://twitter.com/nasa_lsp

All systems are green — all systems go for launch of the Glory Mission with MSU’s Explorer-1 [Prime] hitchhiking along for its ride into space in just under 9-hours Probability of weather scrub is only 10% (if a big cumulus cloud happens to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time). Our first contact over Bozeman from the Cobleigh Ground station is expected around 1:00 pm Wednesday afternoon. Well before that, as early as 1.5 hours after launch we should start receiving indication from other stations around the world (first from France, then from Alaska, and then Hawaii) that our beacon has been heard. Keeping fingers tightly crossed out here.