One of the RAX presentations during the CubeSat workshop in April stated that they're now targeting a September launch.
I'm assuming the delay is due to diffusers being added to all Minotaur IV third stage steering systems to reduce unintended thrust after motor burnout. Minotaur IV is launched out of both Kodiak & Vandenberg; I don't see any reference to Kwaj having any launch capability for the Minotaur family.
On 6/8/10 12:00 PM, [email protected] wrote:
Message: 6 Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 10:53:19 -0400 From: "John K Scoggin Jr (W3JKS/AAT3BF)"[email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] FW: RAX - Radio Aurora Explorer To:[email protected] Message-ID:[email protected] Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
There was a news item a week or two ago that the Kodiak Launch Complex had lost its funding from the Missile Defense Agency and that the Congresscritters were looking for some grease in the bottom of the pork barrel to keep it alive.
It looks like the MDA launches are going to be coming mostly from Kwajalein now (which probably makes more sense from the standpoint of fixed support costs, as the RADARs on Kwaj as still very much needed in any case.
Did RAX lose its ride perhaps? There have been no updates on the RAX website for a couple of months.
73,
john