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Flight History

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A summary of flight results will eventually be posted to this page

6/07/99

Deliver payload 1 to NSBF

6/08/99-6/15/99

Evening thunderstorms and full queue have prevented launch.

6/16/99

Good evening for launch. Top payload in the queue ( a cosmic microwave background experiment from Berkeley) gets off and has a good flight. No sprites were forecast.

6/17/99

Roll out and get as far as the pad before the winds pick up and a payload problem develops. Arrgh!

6/18/99-7/04/99

Bad surface weahter in Palestine and/or bad weather in the forecast landing zone keep us on the ground.

7/05/99-7/06/99

Flight 1 (the Engineering test) was conducted.

Launch Time: 01:14:31 UTC on 7/06/1999.
Cutdown: 09:45:00 UTC on 07/06/1999.

Flight Performance of all systems was nominal.

07/07/99-7/18/99

Prepare for Ottumwa field campaign.

07/19/99

Ship equipment to Ottumwa.

07/28/99

UH Field team arrives Ottumwa

07/29/99-08/03/99

Build up and check out payloads.

08/04/99

File NOTAM. Put payload on crane. No sprites, two ground stations socked in.

08/05/99

File NOTAM. Good weather for launch locally. All ground stations overcast.

08/06/99-08/07/99

Poor weather in Ottumwa.

08/08/99

File NOTAM. Clear at all three ground stations. Possible MCS development in ND, eastern CO. Surface winds stay too high all evening. Arrggh.

08/09/99

Weather is too poor to file a NOTAM.

08/10/99

NOTAM filed. Sprite forecast promising. Waiting on local winds, which never died below 15 knots at 500'. No launch. Lots and lots of terrific sprites, though.

08/11/99-08/13/99

Poor surface weather in Ottumwa.

08/14/99-08/15/99

File NOTAM. Fairly nice day in Ottumwa. Launch flight 2 ott.jpg (41915 bytes)

Launch Time: 23:59:17 UTC on 8/14/1999.
Cutdown: 12:35:00 UTC on 08/15/1999.

Bad luck continues. Poor visibility at ground sites and few to no sprites.

08/15-16/99

High winds. No NOTAM

08/17/99

File NOTAM. Fantastic , bright sprite producer in Nebraska. Attempt launch at 0200 Z on 8/18/99. Balloon bursts prior to launch of payload. Flight is aborted.

65 sprites are triangulated by at least two of the ground stations.Arrggh.

08/18/99

High winds and rain, NO NOTAM

08/19/99

File NOTAM. WInds out of tolerance. Quit at NO sprites

08/20/99

File NOTAM. Winds fairly calm. Launch Flight 3

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Launch Time: 00:39:32 UTC on 08/21/1999
Cutdown: 11:12:00 UTC on 08/21/99

Sprites observed and triangulated from 3 ground stations with balloon up and taking data. System performance 94% of nominal. Elves also observed by two stations.

08/21/99

Calm all day. File NOTAM. Hang payload on crane. Winds immediately pick up. Low levels up to 16 knots by 6:30pm. Scrub mission.

08/22/99

Last night of campaign. File NOTAM. Thunderstorms develop west of here that are growing and moving toward us. Srub before even putting it on the crane.

So the campaign ends with a whimper and not a flight.

08/23/99

Pack for shipment home. Recover flight 3 payload. On board memory intact. Seeral hundred events recorded.

08/24/99

UH Team returns to Houston