Confirmation that the three military satellites deployed came about an hour or so after launch based on telemetry relayed through tracking stations established around the world.

PICOSat is a technology demonstration satellite that incorporates four experiments. PCSat was designed by students at the U.S. Naval Academy and will be used by the amateur radio community. Sapphire is also a student-designed and built satellite that will test the use of infrared sensors in space.

More dramatic, however, was how word came that Starshine 3 had deployed from the Athena 1's upper stage. The spacecraft -- essentially a one-yard-wide (one-meter-wide) ball covered with hundreds of mirrors and appearing like a disco ball -- is equipped with a small transmitter that sends out a signal any amateur radio operator can hear.

An engineer working at Palmer Station in Antarctica was able to pick up the signal on his scanner and contacted the project's director, Gil Moore, who was at the launch site.

"We have been deployed and we are operating," a jubilant Moore reported on NASA TV.

Students around the world -- many of whom helped polish the mirrors attached to the satellite's exterior -- will look for Starshine 3 in the sky and report their findings on a Web site. The data will help NASA learn more about how Earth's atmosphere can slow a satellite and drop it out of orbit.

Historic shot into space

For the operators of the Kodiak Island launch site, the $38 million mission marked a significant milestone in the history of the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp. (AADC) -- the public corporation created in 1991 to develop an aerospace industry for the 49th state.

Three Air Force missile tests have flown suborbital missions from the Alaskan site, which is located about 250 miles south of Anchorage, but the Athena 1 flight was the first to throw a payload all the way into an orbit over Earth.

"We appreciate the confidence that NASA put forward to trust their mission out of our complex, and all of the Lockheed Martin people and everybody responsible that made this happen," said Pat Ladner, executive director of the AADC.

Alaska state leaders approved and developed the facility at a time when there was a promising market for dozens of smaller satellites to be frequently launched into polar orbits on rockets such as the Athena and Taurus, which both use Thiokol's Castor 120 as their first stage.

"That market has not done very well, but fortunately for us we've gotten a lot of Department of Defense work and it appears we're going to get some more if and when the National Missile Defense program is funded and approved," Ladner said.

Equally uncertain for Lockheed Martin is the potential commercial use of the Athena 1 rocket, which has now racked up a string of seven launches without a failure.

"Right now we have no other launches on contract," said Rick Malone, Lockheed Martin's Athena mission director. "The entire spacecraft market is rather flat if not completely gone as far as small launch vehicles go. We are talking with a customer who will launch out of Kodiak if they decide to launch multiple launches."

Malone would not elaborate.

A long wait

Once targeted for launch August 31, launch of the Athena tried the patience and morale of the government and contractor team as delay after delay piled up.

Launch was slipped to Sept. 17 because of a technical problem at the launch pad, and then the terrorist attacks delayed the launch team's arrival in Alaska, so the launch was targeted for Sept. 21. Bad weather prevented the Sept. 21 launch attempt from even starting.

On Sept. 22 the countdown clocks started ticking but the launch was scrubbed because of a problem with a radar tracking system at Cordova, Alaska.

As that problem was being fixed a massive solar flare erupted on the sun and sent an enormous amount of charged protons directly toward Earth. Athena's guidance system is particularly sensitive to the increased proton flux, so managers had to wait for the energy level to subside, which it finally did on Saturday.

But in the meantime, the remote location afforded the launch team an opportunity to enjoy Alaska's local wonders and breathtaking scenery.

"There was definitely no shortage of activity among the team," Dovale said after the launch.

Meetings continued each day and there were routine tasks to perform on the rocket, he said. But the duties certainly didn't fill each day and members of the launch team were able to explore on their own. Among the activities enjoyed: riding in seaplanes to view bears, mountain climbing, shopping, kayaking and golf.

"Those are the kind of things you need to balance out the work day," Dovale said.

Next up for the NASA launch team based on Florida's Space Coast: a pair of launches in mid-November.

An Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket launch is to be staged from Cape Canaveral and a Lockheed Martin Atlas is to launch a NASA communications satellite.