HESSI Set for February 5 Launch

NASA's High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) remains on track for a Feb. 5 launch. HESSI will study solar flares - gigantic explosions in the atmosphere of the Sun-with a unique kind of X-ray vision, producing the very first high-fidelity color movies of solar flares during their highest energy emissions.

HESSI will be carried aloft inside a Pegasus XL rocket under the belly of Orbital Science Corporation's Stargazer L-1011 aircraft. The L-1011 is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., at 2:30 p.m. EST. After the aircraft is about 40,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, it will drop the Pegasus rocket. Following a free fall and a series of short rocket motor burns, the rocket will deliver HESSI to its 373-mile (600-kilometer) circular orbit above the Earth, inclined at 38 degrees to the equator.

Separation from the Pegasus rocket is scheduled to occur at 3:36 p.m. EST. HESSI will study gigantic explosions in the atmosphere of the Sun with a unique kind of X-ray vision, and produce the first high-fidelity color movies of solar flares in their highest energy emissions.

An employee viewing has been arranged the Bldg. 8 auditorium beginning at 2:15 p.m. when launch coverage of the mission begins from Cape Canaveral on NASA TV.

For more information on HESSI, visit: http://hesperia.gsfc.nasa.gov/hessi/

For the complete article on HESSI, go to: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/news-release/releases/2002/h02-17.htm