New Launch video

[pegleg]

The Italian COSMO-SkyMed satellite was launched from Vandenberg last night, on a Delta II launch vehicle.

Video at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfX2K7ZLhU8

Still photo at:
www.flickr.com/photos/pegleg000/2099685991/

The COSMO-SkyMed is a radar imaging satellite (the 2nd of 4 planned satellites) that will monitor the Mediterranean region (storms, flooding, ship traffic, etc) for both civilian and military purposes. The French will launch 2 optical imaging satellites by 2009 to complete the observation system.

I also added some new photos to:
www.flickr.com/photos/pegleg000/

[Deleted]

Wow, very cool pegleg -- at first i didnt think that was ur video, until I saw that it was under ur acct... Nice video & great pix as always

[pegleg]

Thanks Jimbo! The clouds made for some interesting effects, but also cut the imaging short. I hope to reprocess the still photo to see if I can improve it somewhat.

I think that the next launch from here is in January or February. I hope to try again.