Constellation-1 mission comes after a lot of time and effort which was directed towards designing the first virtual satellite system to serve as a commercial and military GPS and tracking satellite system.
The entire launching event was televised at UASO web site and Ustream TV. During the mission, Centaur-D/C-01 satellite stack was placed into a 152.1 x 220.8 km low earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 152 km. UASO reported that no glitches occurred.
According to the Guidance Systems Officer involved in the mission, satellite solar panel deployment took place on Saturday January 23, 2010 at 2:23 am EST. The next step in the Constellation-1 mission involved the Flight Director officially deeming the mission complete and to handing over control of the spacecraft from Mission Control in Cape Canaveral to Constellation Program Mission Control (CPMC).
CPMC is located in the Oberth Unnammed Systems Research Center (OUSRC) in Cleveland, OH. The Constellation program will be monitored from CPMC from where observations on the program’s progress will be made for the duration of the satellite constellation's life-time.
The press release also stated that information for the mission will be released by UASO upon the Flight Director's declaration of a mission complete.
