{"id":10799,"date":"2021-12-04T18:57:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T10:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-atlas-5-rolls-out-to-launch-pad-for-space-force-mission\/"},"modified":"2021-12-04T18:57:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T10:57:08","slug":"photos-atlas-5-rolls-out-to-launch-pad-for-space-force-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-atlas-5-rolls-out-to-launch-pad-for-space-force-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Atlas 5 rolls out to launch pad for Space Force mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

United Launch Alliance rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad Friday at Cape Canaveral in preparation for liftoff before dawn Sunday on a mission to carry two U.S. Space Force technology demonstration satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n

The 196-foot-tall (59.7-meter) rocket emerged from ULA\u2019s Vertical Integration Facility shortly before 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) Friday. The Atlas 5 rode its mobile launch platform along rail tracks for the 1,800-foot journey from the VIF to launch pad 41.<\/p>\n

ULA confirmed the rocket reached the pad early Friday afternoon, then teams started preps to load the Atlas 5\u2019s bronze-colored first stage with RP-1, a highly-refined, rocket-grade kerosene that will feed the Russian-made RD-180 main engine.<\/p>\n

The Atlas 5 is set to launch the STP-3 mission for the military\u2019s Space Test Program. Two technology demonstration satellites are mounted inside the Atlas 5\u2019s 17.7-foot (5.4-meter) diameter nose cone, hosting payloads from NASA, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the Space Force.<\/p>\n

The Atlas 5 will release the two satellites directly into geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.<\/p>\n

The launch will mark the 90th flight of an Atlas 5 rocket. The rocket \u2014 designated with tail number AV-093 \u2014 will fly in its \u201c551\u201d configuration with a 5-meter-diameter payload shroud, five solid rocket boosters, and a single-engine Centaur upper stage. This is the most powerful version of the Atlas 5 family, with 11 missions of the Atlas 5-551 rocket configuration to date.<\/p>\n

The two-hour launch window opens at 4:04 a.m. EST (0904 GMT) Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

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

United Launch Alliance rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad Friday at Cape Canaveral in preparation for liftoff before dawn Sunday on a mission to carry two U.S. Space Force technology demonstration satellites into orbit. The 196-foot-tall (59.7-meter) rocket emerged from ULA\u2019s Vertical Integration Facility shortly before 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) Friday. […]<\/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-10799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799"}],"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=10799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}