The 19th Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft successfully launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Thursday morning from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., according to a release. “The launch of DMSP-19 continues the vital weather support to operational commanders for another decade,” said Col. Scott Larrimore, director of the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Defense Weather Systems Directorate. The satellite will orbit the Earth in a “near polar, sun-synchronous orbit” and is capable of covering the entire Earth in about 12 hours, states the release. The satellite is slated to provide environmental data into the mid-2020s and is part of an extension of DMSP operations that resulted from a 2012 reboot of the Defense Weather Satellite System. It is the third ULA mission out of a slated 15 in 2014, according to a company release.
The latest round of environmental sampling for the Air Force’s Missile Community Cancer Study found trace amounts of potentially harmful chemicals called volatile organic compounds in the service’s ICBM facilities, but not at levels that would pose a health hazard, Air Force Global Strike Command announced Oct. 22.