CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (MARCH 25) UPI - A small NASA rocket launched from a barge
in the Indian Ocean successfully carried a 522-pound research satellite into
orbit Friday in an international mission to study Earth's atmosphere. 

The San Marco satellite, mounted atop a 47,000-pound NASA Scout rocket and
named after the patron saint of navigators, was launched at 2:51 p.m. EST from
a platform about three miles off the coast of Kenya in the Indian Ocean. 

''Everything we know about was right on time and right on target,'' said Jim
Ward, deputy manager of the Scout program at NASA's Langley Research Center in
Hampton, Va. ''Everything was just fine.'' 

It was the fifth launch of a San Marco satellite since 1964 and the fourth in a
row launched from the San Marco Equatorial Range, operated by the University of
Rome and located about 90 miles north of Mombasa, Kenya. 

Traveling in an egg-shaped elliptical orbit ranging up to 381 miles high, the
satellite's five science instruments will gather data on a variety of
phenomena, including atmospheric density, incident and reflected solar
radiation, the chemical composition of the atmosphere and so on. 

The instruments were provided by Italy, West Germany and the United States in a
joint endeavor between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the
University of Rome and a West German research group in Freiburg. 

The flight Friday marked the ninth launch of a four-stage, solid-fuel Scout
rocket from the San Marco facility. The rockets, built by LTV Missiles and
Electronics Group of Dallas, are about 75 feet long. They are the smallest
launchers in use by NASA to deliver payloads into orbit. 

The Scout program at San Marco is unique in that the American rockets are
prepared for launch by Italian engineers.