The year 2008 proves to become extremely exciting as the European Laboratory for particle physics (CERN = Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) will start-up the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest sub-atomic particle accelerator in an underground circular tunnel near Geneva Switzerland, in order to study nature’s fundamental elements and their interactions at the smallest scale. Meanwhile, NASA’s GLAST space telescope will study the same processes as the LHC does but in their natural cosmic settings.
Thought this mission should get its own topic

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/sp...raft/index.html

Does anyone know of another website with images of the GLAST space telescope?
The General Dynamics site on GLAST is down...

http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov/public/resources/images/

Two weeks ago, NASA's Alan Stern, associate administrator for Science at NASA Headquarters, launched a public competition, closing 31 March 2008, to re-name GLAST in a way that would "capture the excitement of GLAST’s mission and call attention to gamma-ray and high-energy astronomy...
Well I hope they will retain GLAST acronym along the new name as otherwise science writers will have to do some editing to articles in preparation

Any takers?
http://glast.sonoma.edu/glastname/

I've been trying, but it's not an easy assignment to make gamma rays and high energy particle physics popular topics round the breakfast table. Even the word gamma itself has connotations of a fail grade. It's not the sexiest greek letter. Added to that the acronym GLAST is actually one of the more catchy and pronouncable ones around. So my suggestion would be - GLAST. I haven't bothered submitting it.

They could always call it the GAmma Ray Burst Observer -- GARBO.

Then again, what do you do when a high-tech orbital observatory announces that it wants to be alone?

-the other Doug

GLASTnost?
GAMMELEON?
GaRaBu (Rhymes with Caribou)?
HULK?
GODZILLA?

GLASTnost is a good one
But people would mix it with GLONASS

GLaDOS?
It would need some sort of CAKE instrumentation.

It would serve as an excellent portal through which to view the Universe.

Or why not GLAD (Gamma-ray Large Area Detector) - there's much worser acronyms out there

I was trying to come up with words that would form the acronym KOOL-AID, but first I had to change the name of gamma rays to kappa rays... *sigh*...

-the other Doug

GONAD (Gamma-Ray Observatory 'n' Astronomical Discoverer )

GOLEM (Gamma-ray Observing Laboratory Explorer Mission)

I think it's: Gamma Ray Extended Area Telescope!
The GREAT mission.

If NASA doesn't receive any good suggestions, they could name it TWAIN (Telescope Without An Interesting Name).

FLAT : (Four Letter Acronym Telescope)

Or, slightly more seriously, the Feenberg Telescope, or the Kemble telescope.

Doug

GLAST arrived at Kennedy Space Center
The rocket that will launch GLAST is a Delta II 7920-H, manufactured and prepared for launch by United Launch Alliance. It is a heavier-lift model of the standard Delta II that uses larger solid rocket boosters. The first stage is scheduled to be erected on Pad 17-B the week of March 17. Launch is planned for 16th May 2008...

How about POSTGRAD - Powerful Orbital Space Telescope for Gamma Rays And Dark matter

Maybe that would attract bright, young scientists

Florida Today's Flame Tranch blog is reporting:

04/18/2008 03:13 PM GLAST delay expected after accident

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...loridatoday.com

I can't open the link. Does anyone know more?

Edit: removed parentheses around link
Please don't add parentheses around long links, it makes the page too wide to read and breaks the link.

alan

Looks like a damaged adapter beam (they've apparently already organized and tested a replacement). Processing will continue on Monday, so only a short delay.

Check-out at KSC Florida:
http://www.launchphotography.com/GLAST_Astrotech.html

Ben - your check out photos are SO much better than the stuff the usual KSC PAO photographers come up with. Stunning images.

Doug

Well, thanks. :-)

The June 3 launch day will only occur if the shuttle goes May 31. If the shuttle is scrubbed 24, 48 hours then GLAST will delay accordingly with three days between them. If the shuttle were to be delayed much beyond it, GLAST would surely go first.

Launch of NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, is targeted for Tuesday, June 3, from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The launch window extends from 11:45 a.m. to 1:40 p.m. EDT and remains unchanged through Aug. 7.
NASA will hold a pre-launch news conference at NASA's Kennedy Space Center news center at 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 1. The briefing will be carried live on NASA Television.
A prelaunch webcast will take place on Monday, June 2 at noon on NASA Direct, Kennedy's Internet broadcasting network.

Launch is now June 5, same time.

June 6 now, earliest.

Now June 7 and counting :-P I'm not sure what the issues are exactly.

There is a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather both the 7th and 8th.

The GLAST prelaunch news conference is planned for 1 p.m. on Thursday, June 5, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center News Center. Question and answer capability will be available from participating NASA locations.
There were some issues with the Delta II launch vehicle, the launch window extends from June 7 from 11:45 a.m. to 1:40 p.m. EDT and remains unchanged through Aug. 7. Fingers crossed!

Launch postponed to June 8 now :-P

We're looking at an indefinite postponment now. The range is refusing to allow a waiver on a rocket issue, for both GLAST and Jason.

It appears that this involves a battery with respect to the flight termination system (FTS) and that the GLAST vehicle will get its battery from Jason; Jason will get a new one. I don't know what that means for the dates.

June 11 now.

If anyone is still paying attention, live coverage begins on NASA TV's media channel (only) at 9:45am EDT. There is a 40% chance of weather violation. Today they would have been no go for sure, it was stormy from around 10am through the day.

Indeed, the GLAST gamma-ray telescope, a $690 million successor to one of NASA's original Great Observatories, is scheduled for launch Wednesday 11th June 2008 from Cape Canaveral. 60% acceptable meteo conditions…
Liftoff aboard a Delta 2-Heavy rocket is targeted for 11:45 a.m. EDT.
Countdown just went in a planned 60-minute built-in hold

Launch in another 5 minutes on media channel

GLAST has lifted off!

Click to view attachment

Lift Off

Lol I was just going to say Lift off !

Should that not be GLAST-off ?

GLAST-off

June 11, 2008 - 12:05 p.m. EDT
GLAST has launched into space out of plumes of smoke and clouds at 12:05 p.m. EDT. The spacecraft will be going through a coast phase for about 50 minutes. GLAST will then be in the perfect orbit to monitor the universe. Let's hope everything will work out fine!

GLAST has just separated from the second stage and is now on its own. Congrats to the GLAST team!

edit : posted too soon. Still awaiting solar array deploy...

edit2 : I think we've had confirmation of solar array deploy. GLAST is truly on its way.

1720 GMT (1:20 p.m. EDT)

T+plus 75 minutes, 9 seconds. SPACECRAFT SEPARATION! NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope has been deployed from the Delta 2 rocket's second stage to complete today's launch from Cape Canaveral.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d333/status.html

Looked a bit unusual to me - blackening on the GEM's - and what looked like venting from the 1st stage shortly after launch.

Nice to hear it's up and away though

Doug

Any word when we will find out the winner of the naming contest?

Nice launch! Showed more different camera angles and zooms than your typical Delta II launch. You gotta love that zoom shot with loads of condensation sticking to the vehicle. The combination of sound, tracking footage and cloudy skies reminds me of the New Horizons launch pretty much.

Any word when we will find out the winner of the naming contest?

good question hendric... hopefully soon as I need that new name for my upcoming article on this beauty of a space telescope

I noticed that, too, and a colleague showed me it blackened the rocket all the way up to the fairing. I haven't watched a ton of Delta launches, but I don't recall ever seeing such an effect.

EDIT: Sorry, misread your post. You weren't saying venting caused the blackening. Any thoughts on what might have?

Looks like the solid booster backblast simply charred it. It's pretty chaotic from launch to launch - for example RocketCams on Delta II can get blasted with the charring at liftoff or can remain pretty clean. Just a stroke of luck I'd say.

Any news/hints when GLAST will be renamed ?