NASA's NuSTAR Mission Lifts Off

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Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
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J.D. Harrington 202-358-5241
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News release: 2012-170 June 13, 2012

NASA's NuSTAR Mission Lifts Off

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-170&cid=release_2012-170

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) launched into
the morning skies over the central Pacific Ocean at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT)
Wednesday, beginning its mission to unveil secrets of buried black holes and other exotic
objects.

"We all eagerly await the launch of this novel X-ray observatory," said Paul Hertz, NASA's
Astrophysics Division Director. "With its unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution to the
previously poorly explored hard X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum, NuSTAR will
open a new window on the universe and will provide complementary data to NASA's larger
missions, including Fermi, Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer."

NuSTAR will use a unique set of eyes to see the highest energy X-ray light from the cosmos.
The observatory can see through gas and dust to reveal black holes lurking in our Milky Way
galaxy, as well as those hidden in the hearts of faraway galaxies.

"NuSTAR will help us find the most elusive and most energetic black holes, to help us
understand the structure of the universe," said Fiona Harrison, the mission's principal
investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The observatory began its journey aboard a L-1011 "Stargazer" aircraft, operated by Orbital
Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va. NuSTAR was perched atop Orbital's Pegasus XL rocket, both
of which were strapped to the belly of the Stargazer plane. The plane left Kwajalein Atoll in the
central Pacific Ocean one hour before launch. At 9:00:35 a.m. PDT (12:00:35 p.m. EDT), the
rocket dropped, free-falling for five seconds before firing its first-stage motor.

About 13 minutes after the rocket dropped, NuSTAR separated from the rocket, reaching its final
low Earth orbit. The first signal from the spacecraft was received at 9:14 a.m. PDT (12:14 p.m.
EDT) via NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System.

"NuSTAR spread its solar panels to charge the spacecraft battery and then reported back to Earth
of its good health," said Yunjin Kim, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We are checking out the spacecraft now and are excited to tune
into the high-energy X-ray sky."

The mission's unique telescope design includes a 33-foot (10-meter) mast, which was folded up
in a small canister during launch. In about seven days, engineers will command the mast to
extend, enabling the telescope to focus properly. About 23 days later, science operations are
scheduled to begin.

In addition to black holes and their powerful jets, NuSTAR will study a host of high-energy
objects in our universe, including the remains of exploded stars; compact, dead stars; and clusters
of galaxies. The mission's observations, in coordination with other telescopes such as NASA's
Chandra X-ray Observatory, which detects lower-energy X-rays, will help solve fundamental
cosmic mysteries. NuSTAR also will study our sun's fiery atmosphere, looking for clues as to
how it is heated.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the Caltech and managed by JPL for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences
Corporation. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of
California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, Calif. NuSTAR will be
operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its equatorial ground station
located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University,
Rohnert Park, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by
Caltech for NASA.

Launch management and government oversight for the mission are the responsibility of NASA's
Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's Space Network and
Near Earth Network are providing space communication services for launch and early orbit and
critical periods during the mission.

For more information about NuSTAR, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nustar .

-end-


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