{"id":10704,"date":"2022-01-25T21:43:47","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T13:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-atlas-5-rocket-flies-on-ulas-first-mission-of-2022\/"},"modified":"2022-01-25T21:43:47","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T13:43:47","slug":"photos-atlas-5-rocket-flies-on-ulas-first-mission-of-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-atlas-5-rocket-flies-on-ulas-first-mission-of-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Atlas 5 rocket flies on ULA\u2019s first mission of 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off Jan. 21 from Cape Canaveral, climbing off of launch pad 41 with thrust from its Russian-made RD-180 main engine and a single Northrop Grumman solid rocket booster to carry two U.S. military satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n

These images from Spaceflight Now\u2019s photographers show the Atlas 5 rocket\u2019s 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) liftoff from Florida\u2019s Space Coast with two satellites for the Space Force\u2019s Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program.<\/p>\n

The asymmetrical thrust from the rocket\u2019s main engine and strap-on booster caused the Atlas 5 to launch with a noticeable sideways slide, as designed, as it began a nearly seven-hour mission to deploy the GSSAP satellites into orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.<\/p>\n

The launch marked the first and only use of the Atlas 5\u2019s \u201c511\u2032 configuration with a large 5.4-meter (17.7-foot) diameter payload fairing and a single strap-on booster. The Atlas 5 rocket comes in 11 different variants, each optimized for a specific payload mass going to a certain orbital destination. The Atlas 5-511 was the last of the 11 configurations to fly.<\/p>\n

The GSSAP satellites roam geosynchronous orbit to detect, track, and characterize other spacecraft and space debris.<\/p>\n

Read our full story for details on the mission.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off Jan. 21 from Cape Canaveral, climbing off of launch pad 41 with thrust from its Russian-made RD-180 main engine and a single Northrop Grumman solid rocket booster to carry two U.S. military satellites into orbit. These images from Spaceflight Now\u2019s photographers show the Atlas 5 rocket\u2019s […]<\/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-10704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10704"}],"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=10704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}