The RHESSI Launch  - Live views of RHESSI/Pegasus ready for launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida

The RHESSI satellite will be launched by a Pegasus rocket:  Launch is scheduled for February 5th at 20:26UT. 

A Pegasus rocket is released in the air from the underside of a jet airplane.  After release, the Pegasus rocket accelerates in a horizontal position forward and away from the airplane, and soon arcs upward, eventually leaving the earth's atmosphere, depositing the satellite into its correct position for orbit. Interestingly, compared to a traditional vertical launch, the Pegasus is more like Isaac Newton's famous cannonball thought experiment, in which he laid the theoretical groundwork for earth orbiting satellites three hundred years before it was technologically possible. If you teach about the physics of orbits, see the Newton's cannonball Java applet and lecture.

	RHESSI Project Manager Peter Harvey talks about the launch.  Includes photos and illustration of rocket and spacecraft...  Real Video  T1  or  28.8/56k Follow this link to learn more about RHESSI's Pegasus launch from the manufacturer of the Pegasus,  Orbital Sciences Corporation.