Six solid fuel boosters ignite and the Delta-II
Rocket rises from the pad at 23 seconds after 9:57 A.M.
Delta-II/Gravity-B probe launch from Vandenberg AFB, April 20, 2004 |
(Download a higher resolution picture by clicking on any picture below.)
The Gravity-B probe was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on April 20, 2004. It will verify whether the magnitude of warping of the space-time continuum caused by the rotation of the Earth is properly predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
Six solid fuel boosters ignite and the Delta-II
Rocket rises from the pad at 23 seconds after 9:57 A.M.
Three solid fuel boosters ignite one minute
and ten seconds after launch as the Delta-II arcs over toward the south.
Two frame composite, wide-angle view of the departing rocket.
Three frame composite, wide-angle view of the departing rocket.
Eighty- two minutes after launch the Gravity-B probe was placed into the proper orbit.
More Vandenberg AFB
launch photography.
Link to Stanford's Gravity-B Probe web site.
Link to Boeing's Delta-II page.
Link to the Air Force Fact Sheet about the Delta-II.
The home page of the 
30th Space
Wing
Brian Webb's Space Archive Page provides launch schedule and ham radio information.
You can buy a 2008 calendar featuring my photographs of rocket raunches from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Atlas IIAS/Terra, December 18, 1999
Delta II/Gravity Probe B, April 20, 2004
LGM-118 Peacekeeper, July 21, 2004
Minuteman III, August 25, 2005
Minuteman III, September 7, 2005
Titan IV/National Reconnaissance Office satellite, October 19, 2005
Delta II/CALIPSO Cloudsat, April 28, 2006
Delta IV/DMSP F17, November 4, 2006
Delta II/National Reconnaissance Office satellite, December 14, 2006
Delta II/COSMO-Skymed, May 7, 2007
Minotaur, August 23, 2007
Delta II/Worldview 1, September 18, 2007
Put a copy of the Rocket Launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base: 2008 Calendar in your Lulu.com shopping cart for $16.95.
Send a message to Brian .