Congratulations, nice shot! I hope your website can handle a lot of traffic because you are about to get some ;-)

Galileo was trucked:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/80s/release_1989_1242.html

And here is the photo of Cassini arrived by C-17:

http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/detail.cfm?mediaid=384

Cassini was flown in from EAFB to KSC aboard a C-17 (citing the KSC media archive). Trucked from JPL to EAFB I assume. Not sure about Galileo.

NH was airlifted, as was MRO, MCO, MPL. I'm sure Phoenix will be. As I recall Pathfinder and both MERs and were trucked all the way across from JPL.

I am not sure how Dawn arrived, however even if it was airlifted it still has to be driven from the SLF over to Astrotech, which is about a ~12 mile drive. So those particular photos are not an indication. Usually they post photos of it being offloaded from the aircraft, so based on the lack of that I would guess it may have been trucked.

And Magellan.

There is a brief rundown here too:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/titan/b39/index.html

"Saturday's mission was the 24th and final IUS launch. Dating back to 1982, IUS motors flew aboard 15 space shuttle missions, eight Titan 4 rockets and a single Titan 34D, launching NASA's Magellan space probe to Venus, Galileo to Jupiter, Ulysses to the sun, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the original fleet of Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, plus many military spacecraft, including a few classified ones."

IUS is history. The last IUS took DSP-22 into orbit aboard a Titan IV on Feb. 14 2004.

Even before Columbia, there were no IUS deploys slated on the shuttle anymore. Chandra on STS-93 was the last.

There are videos taken following deployments from the shuttle in the past, but it is done so far away that all you see is a big white star or splotch in the distance.

I will be there :-) shooting. But hey, I live in the area.

The correct launch window for the 30th is 5:13:15 p.m. - 5:33:15 p.m. EDT and it has been added to the KSC launch schedule.

It's arrival in FL has been pushed back, but I don't know why yet. I think it was to arrive late this month or early April.

The launch has been postponed to June 30 NET.

And as I had been told, there is in fact a launch window. It's about 20 mins long.

When I asked one of the project scientists I was told the window was approximately 5:54pm to 6:20pm EDT June 20.

She seemed to think it was a long window, but I was skeptical since this is a planetary mission.

Jim...6:05pm June 20?

I'm not sure what is being implied here, but LOX and Kerosene are not hypergolic. They do not ignite on contact. Mixing them together cannot do anything unless a source is there to start the explosion in the first place.

Thanks. NH is currently travelling faster than V1/V2 relative to the sun. I assume there will be some slowing on its outbound journey from Jupiter's graivty. Does that mean it will wind up slower than them once again by March-April or so?

It is the craft to leave Earth with the highest relative velocity, but my understanding is that became moot not too long after launch. I was told by a couple of the project guys that NH will never catch Voyager (1 at least), however I'm not sure I see why as NH is currently travelling at the highest speed away from the sun of any spacecraft escaping the solar system.

McNaught's own image of the comet:



Perhaps the nicest I've seen, not only because he took it. You can view them all here:

http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~rmn/C2006P1new.htm

I am sobbing that I never got to see this one, though I know I wouldn't have seen anything like it is now up here.

This is the correct site for finding high resolution photos of Delta 2s:

http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/

In addition, boeing.com's media gallery will have additional photos of other (non-NASA) missions.

Here's a couple of time-lapse photos:

http://www.launchphotography.com/STEREO.html

This is not an actual vote, FYI. They do this each month and compare it to the editors' pick. Once a year or so they publish in the magazine a little blurb on why one was chosen, even if readers did not agree. Hopefully the editor did pick the same one ;-)

As an example see the October choice:

http://seabed.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/m...sue_id=20060901

Thought I would post the reminder that the STEREO spacecraft are set for launch Wednesday night aboard a Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral.

The launch weather forecast calls for excellent conditions with a 90% chance of good weather. You can get the forecast and updates at www.SpaceflightNow.com.

The launch will be on NASA Television (www.nasa.gov/ntv for the webcast).

Are the animations mislabeled, or are they from the original flyby dates for Mercury arrival in 2009? They both say Nov. 2 2004 and were updated last year, post launch.

Yet again:

STATUS REPORT: ELV-090106


Expendable Launch Vehicle Status Report

Mission: STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory)
Launch Pad: 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Launch Vehicle: Boeing Delta II
Launch Date: No earlier than Oct. 18, 2006
Launch Time: TBD

A decision was made to remove the STEREO second stage from the launch vehicle and perform inspection from inside the propellant tank to verify it is structurally sound for flight.

The launch of STEREO is now targeted for no earlier than Oct. 18. An electrical checkout of the vehicle is under way due to lightning strikes within a one-third mile radius of Complex 17 during the passing of Tropical Storm Ernesto.

The STEREO observatories remain at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility. Today technicians removed the transportation canister from around the payload to begin the process of reconditioning the batteries and preparing for the storage period (currently about 30 days). The twin spacecraft will remain in storage until the necessary course of action for the Delta II can be more clearly defined. There was no effect on the STEREO spacecraft from Tropical Storm Ernesto.

Once again postponed, STEREO is now slated for the next window which opens September 18th.

Thanks...

Aug 31 at the earliest now as they check the Delta second stage for leaks.