Tag: Atlas 5
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Photos: Payload with whimsical logo painted on nose cone lifted atop Atlas
Already shrouded in the Atlas 5 rocket’s Extra Extended Payload Fairing (XEPF) aluminum nose cone, the National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-61 satellite was delivered to Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility on Tuesday, July 19 and lifted aboard the United Launch Alliance vehicle for flight. Launch is planned for Thursday, July 28 at 8:37 a.m. EDT (1237…
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Preview: New satellite for spy agency awaits launch into space Thursday
File photo of Atlas 5-421 rollout. Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — An Atlas 5 rocket carrying a classified national security satellite was rolled to the launch pad this morning for Thursday’s flight to bolster the U.S. intelligence-gathering space architecture. Liftoff will occur at 8:37 a.m. EDT (1237 GMT). The duration of the day’s usable launch…
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Photos: Atlas 5 rocket moved to launch pad for Thursday takeoff
Ready to deliver 1.5 million pounds of thrust Thursday morning, an Atlas 5 rocket was rolled from its assembly building to the launch pad today for its national security satellite-deployment flight. The United Launch Alliance rocket, equipped with two strap-on solid-propellant boosters for added performance, will launch the clandestine NROL-61 payload for the U.S. National…
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NASA books nuclear-certified Atlas 5 rocket for Mars 2020 rover launch
An Atlas 5-541 rocket, like this one, will launch the Mars 2020 rover. Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance CAPE CANAVERAL — America’s next Mars rover, a $2.1 billion nuclear-powered vehicle to search for evidence that life once existed there, will be launched to the Red Planet in the summer of 2020 by a powerful Atlas…
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Secret NRO satellite mounted atop Atlas 5 rocket for July 28 launch
Editor’s note July 20: Story updated with launch time announcement. File photo of Atlas 5 payload installation. Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL — Crews hoisted a covert spacecraft atop an Atlas 5 booster rocket this morning for its trek into an equatorial orbit next week. United Launch Alliance will perform the deployment mission on July 28…
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Mystery payload for spy satellite agency launching aboard next Atlas 5
The NROL-61 poster. Credit: United Launch Alliance CAPE CANAVERAL — United Launch Alliance is preparing an Atlas 5 rocket to boost an undercover satellite into orbit for national security later this month. Details are scarce and informed speculation is nonexistent in the lead up to launching the clandestine NROL-61 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance…
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Video: When Juno launched to begin 5-year trek to Jupiter
Juno left the Earth atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on Aug. 5, 2011, beginning its journey to Jupiter atop the most powerful Atlas variant with five side-mounted boosters. Liftoff occurred at 12:25 p.m. EDT (1625 GMT) from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. After traveling more than 1.7 billion miles, Juno arrives…
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Friday’s Atlas 5 launch as seen from the air, land and rocket
CAPE CANAVERAL — Perspectives of Friday’s United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flight were snapped from a commercial airliner, a satellite observer in Australia and the booster itself. I flew by a rocket taking off pic.twitter.com/VDqkVfPej8 — Ryan Kennedy (@Imagineer6) June 24, 2016 Passenger Ryan Kennedy had a window seat aboard the south-bound Southwest Airlines…
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Photos: Atlas 5 launches MUOS 5
The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket successfully flies to orbit Friday to deliver the U.S. Navy’s fifth Mobile User Objective System communications satellite. Photos by Patrick Corkery / Lockheed Martin Space Systems See earlier MUOS 5 coverage. Our Atlas archive.
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Navy satellite sails to orbit atop Atlas 5 rocket for communications grid
CAPE CANAVERAL — And then there were five. The constellation-building Atlas 5 rocket from United Launch Alliance successfully deployed the fifth communications spacecraft for the Navy’s Mobile User Objective System today to form a new rugged smartphone network for the U.S. military. “MUOS is a revolutionary system in its infancy,” said Navy Commander Peter Sheehy,…