Status Report

Launch of GRACE Mission Postponed

By SpaceRef Editor
March 16, 2002
Filed under , ,

The launch of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or
Grace, mission for NASA and the German Center for Air and Space
Flight aboard a Russian Rockot launch vehicle has been postponed
at least 24 hours to no earlier than March 17 due to high winds at
the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The launch window on
March 17 is from 1:21 to 1:31 a.m. PST.

NASA intends to cover the launch with live audio via NASA
Television. Audio coverage of the launch on NASA Television
will begin Sunday morning at 1 a.m. PST and conclude at
approximately 3 a.m. PST following spacecraft separation.

NASA TV is carried on GE-2, transponder 9C located at 85
degrees west longitude, vertical polarization, frquency 3880.0
megahertz, audio 6.8 megahertz.

Launch audio will also be available via a webcast at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/webcast/gracelaunch.html .

A webcast will also be available from the German Center for
Air and Space Flight site at:

http://www.dlr.de/DLR-Homepage .

If launch takes place March 17, an archive of the launch
will be available at the JPL site on Monday, March 18.

SpaceRef staff editor.