Orbital to Launch NASA's Space Technology 5 Spacecraft Aboard Pegasus Rocket

DULLES, Va., March 15, 2006/Satnews Daily/ — Orbital Sciences Corp. (NYSE:ORB) announced on Tuesday that it is in final preparations to launch the Space Technology 5 (ST5) scientific spacecraft for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) aboard the company's Pegasus(R) rocket.

The launch is currently scheduled to take place today, Wednesday, March 15, 2006 from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), California, during an available launch window that extends from 8:57 to 10:19 a.m. (EST). The targeted mission launch time is 9:02 a.m. (EST). This operational schedule is subject to the completion of final pre-launch activities, as well as acceptable weather conditions at VAFB at the time of the launch, Orbital said.

The powered flight sequence for the ST5 mission is expected to take approximately 11 minutes, from the time the Pegasus rocket is released from its L-1011 carrier aircraft to the time that the three ST5 satellites are deployed into orbit. Orbital plans to launch the 55-pound spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit of 186 by 2,796 miles above the Earth at an inclination of 105.6 degrees to the equator.

NASA's New Millennium Program's ST5 spacecraft consists of three microsats that are designed to validate, in actual flight conditions, innovative technology concepts that may reduce risks to future science missions. The ST5 mission will demonstrate the ability of small satellites to perform research-quality science by taking measurements of the Earth's magnetic field using highly sensitive magnetometers.

According to Orbital, for the ST5 mission, the company will employ a unique satellite deployment system called the Pegasus Support Structure, which is a spring-loaded mechanism that intentionally spins the satellites at preset time intervals in order to create a formation-flying group of spacecraft in low-Earth orbit.

The ST5 mission will be the 37th flight of the Pegasus rocket and the first of two planned missions in 2006. Later in the year, Orbital is scheduled to launch NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft, which is now in production at Orbital's Dulles, Virginia satellite manufacturing facility.

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