Airmen and cohorts in industry and NASA combined at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., to launch a Delta II expendable launch vehicle carrying the OSTM/Jason 2 satellite into orbit June 20. OSTM stands for Ocean Surface Topography Mission and describes the spacecraft’s primary mission, that is, to measure and gather data about ocean topography. The OSTM payload, aboard the low-Earth orbiting host Jason 2 satellite, is a cooperative venture among NOAA, NASA, and French and European research agencies. (Vandenberg report)
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.