January 25, 2003

All times are MST (unless otherwise indicated)

6:00 pm: After being successfully delivered into orbit by the Pegasus launch vehicle, the SORCE spacecraft continues to operate flawlessly. All planned contacts with SORCE have been successful, and spacecraft commissioning activities are proceeding as planned and on schedule. All onboard subsystems report nominal conditions.

1:27 pm: SORCE is in orbit! First contact has been made with satellite.

1:14 pm: Pegasus rocket dropped successfully.

12:23 pm: The mission status at this time is still GO, with two launch attempts possible within the launch window. The SORCE spacecraft teams at KSC and LASP continue to monitor real-time spacecraft data that is telemetered along with the Pegasus data stream.

The OCA was given the GO for takeoff at 1912 UTC time (12:12 PM MST), and the OCA takeoff went flawlessly, with ‘wheels up’ at 1917 UTC. SORCE engineers will continue to monitor spacecraft performance during aircraft climb to drop altitude, launch vehicle drop and launch vehicle ascent.

Meanwhile, at the Mission Operations Center at LASP, the flight operations team is preparing for acquisition of spacecraft telemetry via TDRSS. This should occur within seconds of payload separation from the Pegasus rocket. At that time, the flight operations team will continue the work done by the spacecraft launch team in monitoring spacecraft performance, including solar array deployment, which should occur approximately two minutes after separation.

12:17 pm: And we’re off! The L-1011 is in the air and flying to the Pegasus drop point approximately 50 minutes away.

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