News Archive / Tagged: SMAP

• SMAP mission continues despite loss of radar

  Joe LatrellSeptember 4th, 2015

  NASA says that the SMAP mission – designed to help scientists understand Earth's water, energy, and carbon cycles – will continue despite the loss of the main active radar instrument, which stopped transmitting on July 7, 2015.

• NASA’s SMAP spacecraft begins science operations

  Collin SkocikMay 21st, 2015

  On Jan. 31, 2015, NASA launched the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP ) mission from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on a United Launch Alliance (ULA )Delta II rocket. For the next three years, the solar-powered SMAP satellite will study moisture in the soil and detect whether that moisture is […]

• NASA’s SMAP soars into the sky atop ULA Delta II rocket on Saturday morning launch

  SpaceFlight InsiderJanuary 31st, 2015

  VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Ca. — Following an upper-level wind related weather delay, United Launch Alliance (ULA ) and NASA cheered as the Soil Moisture Active Passion (SMAP) mission soared into the sky at 9:22 a.m. EST (1422 GMT) on Jan. 31. The original launch attempt on Jan. 29 was forced to scrub due to […]

• Launch of SMAP slips to NET Jan. 31

  Jason RhianJanuary 29th, 2015

  Citing repairs that are needed to the Delta II 7320 launch vehicle, United Launch Alliance (ULA ) has opted to delay the launch an additional 24 hours. The launch window will now open no earlier than (NET) 6:20 a.m. PST (9:20 a.m. EST) on Jan. 31, 2015. The launch site is Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Space […]

• 24 hour scrub for NASA’s SMAP mission due to high upper level winds

  Jason RhianJanuary 29th, 2015

  NASA and Colorado-based United Launch Alliance (ULA ) will have to wait at least 24 hours before they are able to launch NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP ) mission. High upper level winds at Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 2 (SLC-2) forced the launch team to push their attempts back from the 6:20 a.m. […]

• SMAP poised to launch atop United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket

  SpaceFlight InsiderJanuary 28th, 2015

  NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory, able to produce the highest-resolution and most accurate maps of soil moisture ever obtained from space, is set to launch Thursday, Jan. 29, from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. 9:20 a.m. EST (1420 GMT) marks the beginning of a three minute launch window, […]

• Oh SMAP: NASA plans to get the dirt on soil moisture with new satellite

  SpaceFlight InsiderJanuary 13th, 2015

  As part of NASA’s Earth Sciences campaign, a new Earth-observing satellite is prepping to launch before dawn on Jan. 29 from California’s Vandenberg Air Force base. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission plans to dig into the topmost layer of our planet’s soil in order to accurately measure the hidden water within and determine how […]

• ULA marks 25th anniversary of Delta II rocket

  Jim SharkeyFebruary 16th, 2014

  On Friday, Feb. 14, 2014 United Launch Alliance (ULA) commemorated the 25th  anniversary of the Delta II launch vehicle.  A quarter century earlier, on February 14, 1989, a Delta II lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the GPS BII-01 satellite to orbit. While it was designed specifically to accommodate the Block II series of GPS […]

• Looking in all the wrong places: NASA’s 2014 Earth Science Mission Roundup

  Josh TallisJanuary 26th, 2014

  Perspective is everything in space. Telescopes must have their optics calibrated to an unimaginably minimal tolerance; they must be capable of anticipating and correcting atmospheric distortions; they must sustain tremendous temperature fluctuations in the hostile vacuum of space; and, of course, they must be pointed in the right direction. For most, that direction is invariably […]