{"id":10317,"date":"2023-09-10T18:20:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T10:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/most-powerful-atlas-5-rocket-launches-national-security-mission\/"},"modified":"2023-09-10T18:20:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T10:20:59","slug":"most-powerful-atlas-5-rocket-launches-national-security-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/most-powerful-atlas-5-rocket-launches-national-security-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Most powerful Atlas 5 rocket launches national security mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_63636\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63636\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63636\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230910-Atlas-Feature-Image.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230910-Atlas-Feature-Image.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/20230910-Atlas-Feature-Image-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-63636\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Atlas 5 rocket carrying the National Reconaissance Office Silentbarker mission, passes in front of the Sun as it roars away from Cape Canaveral on Sunday, Sept 10, 2023. Image: Michael Cain\/Spaceflight Now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong> The Atlas 5 lifted off from Cape Canaveral\u2019s pad 41 at 8:47 a.m. EDT (1247 UTC).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Original story:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>United Launch Alliance (ULA) is preparing to launch its penultimate national security mission using one of its workhorse Atlas 5 rockets. The mission, dubbed NROL-107 or Silentbarker, is poised for liftoff at 8:47 a.m. EDT (1247 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.<\/p>\n<p>The Sunday morning launch comes following a one day slip from the planned liftoff on Saturday after ULA discovered what it described as \u201can issue found during a prelaunch ordnance circuit continuity check\u201d in the lead up to the fueling process.<\/p>\n<p>As of the most recent update from ULA at 4:05 a.m. EDT (0805 UTC), the countdown process was proceeding well, stating that \u201cAll systems remain \u2018go\u2019 here at the Advanced Spaceflight Operations Center and at the Space Launch Complex-41 pad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GqJzScWMXaM\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the morning, they stated that the launch weather forecast was 90 percent favorable for an on-time liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA light southerly flow is keeping most of the diurnal shower and storm activity focused over the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic,\u201d ULA said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The update tracks with a forecast from the 45th Weather Squadron, which issued its latest weather briefing on Saturday, citing cumulus clouds as the only potential limiting factor to launch from a weather standpoint. As of Saturday, if needed, the 24-hour backup weather forecast shows an 85 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A \u2018watchdog\u2019 in<\/strong>&nbsp;<strong>space<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Silentbarker mission has been described as being a \u201cwatchdog\u201d of sorts in the geosynchronous Earth orbit, a pocket of space around 24,000 to 40,000 kilometers beyond the surface. In the run-up to Sunday\u2019s mission, National Reconnaissance Office Director Dr. Christopher Scolese said Silentbarker will allow them and their partners at the U.S. Space Systems Command to better track more and smaller objects in GEO.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve heard about communication satellites moving from one location to an other to provide better coverage for other areas. Certainly, we want to be able to see that, so we know what is going on in that area,\u201d Scolese said during an Aug. 28 press conference. \u201cBut we also want to know if there is something going on that is unexpected or shouldn\u2019t be going on that could potentially represent a threat to a high-value asset, either ours or one of our allies\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The program went from concept to development over a roughly five-year period. Both the NRO and SSC had overlapping interests in improving their capabilities in the GEO space and forged a collaboration that became Silentbarker.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s some discrepancy about the total cost of the operations with a FY2021 Air Force budget document estimating costs to be about $1.19 billion through FY2025 and an April 2023 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office assessing program costs to be roughly $994 million.<\/p>\n<p>The program will consist of at least two mission launches with the first, NROL-107, consisting of multiple payloads. Officials declined to go into further detail.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PyfavIFdrqs\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, we primarily rely on our ground-based radars. Our ground-based radars are pretty exquisite, but they can pretty much only see about a basketball-sized object in space. And because of the challenges of day, night and weather, it gets extremely hard to maintain custody of those objects,\u201d said Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein during the Aug. 28 press conference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, by actually moving the sensor into orbit with those objects, we can actually not only detect smaller objects, but maintain custody of them. And when they operate out of the norm, we get indications and warnings that there\u2019s something here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sunday\u2019s launch will also be the last time ULA uses an Atlas 5 rocket is used to launch a mission for the NRO before they transition to their Vulcan rocket. They have one more national security mission aboard an Atlas 5. USSF-51 is expected to launch in 2024 with a more specific date forthcoming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s our mission that we\u2019re designed for, so it\u2019s kind of a fitting way to end that,\u201d said ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno. \u201cIt means a lot to our guys. You\u2019re going to see people with a little tear in the corner of their eye.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-63633\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-07h16m29s469-678x381.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-07h16m29s469-678x381.png 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-07h16m29s469-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-07h16m29s469-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-07h16m29s469-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/vlcsnap-2023-09-10-07h16m29s469.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlas 5 rocket carrying the National Reconaissance Office Silentbarker mission, passes in front of the Sun as it roars away from Cape Canaveral on Sunday, Sept 10, 2023. Image: Michael Cain\/Spaceflight Now. Update: The Atlas 5 lifted off from Cape Canaveral\u2019s pad 41 at 8:47 a.m. EDT (1247 UTC). Original story: United Launch Alliance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}