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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – The launch of NASA’s next Earth observation satellite, Landsat, will be delayed by a week due to a shortage of liquid nitrogen, the space agency said.
The Landsat 9 satellite, a joint venture of NASA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), was originally scheduled to take off from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Space Base in California on September 16. This take-off was postponed to no earlier than September 23.
The delay is due to a global shortage of liquid oxygen, a crucial component of rocket fuel, due to its role in medical liquid oxygen in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Liquid oxygen is used as an oxidizer in conjunction with the fuel used by a rocket. Landsat 9 will be launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, which uses RP-1 (rocket grade kerosene), as the propellant.
“The current pandemic medical liquid oxygen demands have impacted the delivery of the necessary liquid nitrogen supply to Vandenberg by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) and its supplier Airgas,” NASA said in a statement. declaration.
In picture : NASA’s Advanced Earth Observation Satellite Landsat 8
According to agency officials, NASA has its own liquid oxygen supplier that covers launch missions from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (It also provides liquid oxygen for United Launch Alliance missions; SpaceX provides its own liquid oxygen.)
The agency currently has sufficient reserves of liquid oxygen so that the shortage does not affect the launches that are currently on this year’s manifesto. This could change depending on the needs of the medical community.
Vandenberg’s launches are another story. The problem there, as seen with the Landsat delay, is a shortage of liquid nitrogen.
This is because the company that provides the liquid nitrogen supply helps deliver loads of liquid oxygen to hospitals, creating a shortage of delivery drivers available to make deliveries to Vandenberg.
“Airgas converts liquid nitrogen into gaseous nitrogen needed for launcher tests and countdown sequences. DLA and Airgas have now implemented efforts to increase Vandenberg’s liquid nitrogen supply,” NASA said. in a press release.
Landsat 9 mission
The $ 885 million Landsat 9 mission will be the ninth in the Landsat program, as the name suggests, and will continue the program’s role in monitoring and managing land resources like crops, water and forests.
Landsat satellites have been an invaluable resource for scientists since the launch of the first satellite in 1972.
“I like to think of Landsat as a Swiss Army Knife from a basic set of observations or measurements, we power a whole range of different science applications,” said Jeff Masek, Landsat 9 project scientist, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. , in a pre-launch mission briefing on Tuesday.
The Landsat 9 satellite will replace the Landasat 7 satellite, which has been in orbit since 1999, and will work in tandem with Landsat 8, which was launched in 2013. The Landsat 8/9 duo will image the Earth every eight days. They carry two different scientific instruments that will analyze light reflected from the planet in different wavelengths to detect even the smallest changes in lakes, rivers and forests around the world.
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