{"id":10948,"date":"2021-09-26T21:46:26","date_gmt":"2021-09-26T13:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/monday-launch-from-california-begins-countdown-to-atlas-5-retirement\/"},"modified":"2021-09-26T21:46:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T13:46:26","slug":"monday-launch-from-california-begins-countdown-to-atlas-5-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/monday-launch-from-california-begins-countdown-to-atlas-5-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday launch from California begins countdown to Atlas 5 retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket awaits liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, with the Landsat 9 satellite. Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The launch of a Landsat environmental monitoring satellite Monday from California\u2019s Central Coast will be the first liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket since the company confirmed there will be 29 more Atlas 5 flights before the Atlas family\u2019s retirement.<\/p>\n

ULA is retiring its Atlas and Delta rocket lines with the debut of the company\u2019s new Vulcan Centaur rocket, which is scheduled to blast off for the first time next year.<\/p>\n

An Atlas 5 rocket standing on a launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base, set for liftoff Monday with the Landsat 9 Earth observation satellite, is one of 29 Atlas 5s remaining in ULA\u2019s inventory. Jessica Rye, a ULA spokesperson, confirmed last month that all 29 Atlas 5s have been sold to customers for future launches.<\/p>\n

ULA received its final shipment of RD-180 engines from Russia earlier this year. A dual-nozzle RD-180 engine, made in Russia by NPO Energomash, powers the first stage of each Atlas 5 rocket, generating around 860,000 pounds of thrust at full throttle while guzzling kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants.<\/p>\n

The new Vulcan Centaur will be driven by twin U.S.-made BE-4 main engines from Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos. ULA says the Vulcan Centaur will have more lift capability, additional mission flexibility, and will be cheaper to operate than the existing Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rocket families.<\/p>\n

There are three Delta 4 rockets left to fly on ULA\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n

The Landsat 9 mission is the latest in a series of environmental satellites developed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. The new mission is designed for a lifetime of at least five years, extending an unbroken data record of global land images that  dates back to the launch of the first Landsat satellite in 1972.<\/p>\n

Developed for a bit less than $750 million, Landsat 9 is a near-clone of the Landsat 8 satellite launched in 2013. The spacecraft was built by Northrop Grumman, with instruments from Ball Aerospace and NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center.<\/p>\n

With two Landsat satellites operating simultaneously, the constellation will observe all of Earth\u2019s land surfaces every eight days, returning pictures used to track agriculture, forests, coastal waters, and urban growth. Landsat data are also widely used to monitor water sources in the Western United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt tells us about <\/span>vegetation, land use, coastlines, and <\/span>surface water, just to<\/span> name <\/span>a few,\u201d said Karen St. Germain, head of NASA\u2019s Earth science division. \u201cBut the power is really unleashed when <\/span>we combine the data <\/span>from  <\/span>Landsat with our other Earth science missions. That can tell us <\/span>just not <\/span>what is <\/span>happening, but <\/span>also why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLandsat <\/span>is our <\/span>most economically <\/span>impactful Earth science mission,\u201d St. Germain said.<\/p>\n

Liftoff is timed for 11:12 a.m. PDT (2:12 p.m. EDT; 1812 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 3-East  at Vandenberg, a military  base around 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

The expendable Atlas 5 rocket will fly in ULA\u2019s basic \u201c401\u201d configuration with a four-meter (13.8-foot) diameter payload fairing, no strap-on solid rocket boosters, and a Centaur upper stage with a single hydrogen-fueled RL10 engine.<\/p>\n

It will be the 39th flight of an Atlas 5-401 rocket, and the 88th blastoff of an Atlas 5 rocket overall since its inaugural flight in August 2002. The Atlas 5 placed its payloads into the correct orbit on all but one of the flights, but that mission\u2019s customer, the National Reconnaissance Office, deemed the flight a success.<\/p>\n

The Atlas 5-401 is the most-used variant of the Atlas 5 rocket, but just three of the remaining Atlas 5s will use that configuration, including the Landsat 9 mission Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNASA <\/span>has a <\/span>terrific record flying on Atlas <\/span>5,\u201d said Tim Dunn, NASA\u2019s launch director for the Landsat 9 mission. \u201cWe have  launched 19 <\/span>missions on this <\/span>magnificent <\/span>rocket, missions to Pluto, Jupiter, the <\/span>moon, the <\/span>sun, the radiation belts, five different spacecraft <\/span>to Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone to the asteroid Bennu as <\/span>well as (launched) three TDRS communications satellites and <\/span>two <\/span>life-saving GOES weather satellites,\u201d Dunn said in a pre-launch press conference. \u201cLandsat 9 will be the 20th NASA <\/span>mission on Atlas 5.\u201d<\/p>\n

The launch of Landsat 9 will be the 16th Atlas 5 launch from Vandenberg. But just one more Atlas 5 remains on ULA\u2019s schedule at the West Coast launch base. That mission, scheduled for September 2022, will deploy a polar-orbiting NOAA weather satellite   and an experimental inflatable heat shield developed by NASA to protect spacecraft entering planetary atmospheres, from Earth to other worlds throughout the solar system.<\/p>\n

The other 27 Atlas 5 launches on ULA\u2019s books will take off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.<\/p>\n

One \u201clast\u201d that Monday\u2019s mission will achieve is it will be the final daytime Atlas 5 launch from Vandenberg. The launch of NOAA\u2019s JPSS 2 weather satellite next September is expected to occur in nighttime.<\/p>\n

To round out the stats for Monday\u2019s launch, it will mark the 300th flight of an Atlas rocket from Vandenberg, and the 2,000th total launch from the California spaceport since 1958.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Ground crews lift the Landsat 9 Earth observation satellite during pre-launch processing at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Credit: USSF 30th Space Wing\/Anthony Men<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first Vulcan Centaur rockets will take off from Cape Canaveral, but ULA plans to reconfigure the SLC-3E launch pad at Vandenberg for eventual Vulcan missions.<\/p>\n

Vandenberg is well-positioned for launches toward the south targeting high-inclination polar orbits. Such orbits are optimized for Earth observation satellites and some communications missions.<\/p>\n

ULA\u2019s primary customer is the U.S. government. Missions for NASA, the U.S. Space Force, and the National Reconnaissance Office have taken the lion\u2019s share of Atlas 5 and Delta 4 flights, and make up the bulk of the Vulcan Centaur\u2019s backlog, too.<\/p>\n

Formed in 2006 by the merger of Lockheed Martin\u2019s Atlas 5 and Boeing\u2019s Delta 4 rocket programs, ULA has faced increasing competition from SpaceX in the military launch market.<\/p>\n

ULA has completed modifications to launch facilities at Cape Canaveral for the Vulcan Centaur rocket. Vulcan flights will take off from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape, the same site used by Atlas 5 rockets.<\/p>\n

Atlas 5s will continue flying for several more years from Florida\u2019s Space Coast, alternating positions in ULA\u2019s launch schedule with missions using the new Vulcan launcher.<\/p>\n

Vandenberg\u2019s final Atlas 5 launch next year will trigger a cutover to the Vulcan program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have two remaining West Coast Atlas 5 missions, Landsat, and then next year we\u2019ll have JPSS, and then that\u2019s the end of Atlas operations on the West Coast,\u201d said Mark Peller, vice president of major development at ULA.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the unique configuration of the West Coast facilities, we chose to modify them in a way that those modifications won\u2019t be backward compatible,\u201d Peller said in a recent interview with Spaceflight Now. \u201cSo once we make the decision to modify for Vulcan, we won\u2019t retain the capability to launch the Atlas.\u201d<\/p>\n

ULA is currently designing the modifications to the pad it will implement after the launch of the JPSS 2 weather satellite next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the heavy lifting really has to happen after the JPSS mission, so we\u2019ll go take the pad hard down, spend about a year implementing the final modifications, and we\u2019ll have a repurposed facility out of SLC-3 focused on Vulcan operations,\u201d Peller  said.<\/p>\n

The Atlas 5 launch pad at Vandenberg has a mobile gantry that allows ground crews to stack rocket segments on the launch pad. The service tower wheels away in the final hours before liftoff, revealing the rocket before cryogenic propellants are pumped aboard.<\/p>\n

At Cape Canaveral, ULA stacks the Atlas 5 rocket inside a fixed Vertical Integration Facility. The rocket then rides a mobile transporter to the launch pad.<\/p>\n

Peller said the mobile gantry at SLC-3E will be modified to accommodate the wider diameter of the Vulcan rocket. But ULA won\u2019t need to raise the structure\u2019s height, which was increased in the 2000s to update the pad for Atlas 5 missions.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Landsat 8 satellite launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket Feb. 11, 2013. The Landsat 9 satellite will use the same type of rocket. Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Atlas 5 launch set for Monday will propel the Landsat 9 satellite into an orbit more than 414 miles (666 kilometers) above the planet, positioning the spacecraft to join a nearly identical predecessor named Landsat 8 collecting daily images of land surfaces around the world.<\/p>\n

The rocket\u2019s RD-180 main engine will flash to life less than four seconds before liftoff, ramping up to full power to push the Atlas 5 off the launch pad.<\/p>\n

The Atlas 5 will head south over the Pacific Ocean and break the sound barrier at T+plus 1 minute, 20 seconds. The bronze first stage will shut down and jettison just past the four-minute mark in the mission, giving way to a Centaur upper stage to steer the 5,975-pound (2,710-kilogram) Landsat 9 spacecraft into orbit.<\/p>\n

Landsat 9 will deploy from the Centaur upper stage at T+plus 1 hour, 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

A half-hour later, the Centaur stage will reignite its Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine for 10 seconds to begin maneuvering into a lower orbit for separation of four small CubeSat rideshare payloads.<\/p>\n

Another 10-second Centaur burn at T+plus 2 hours, 10 minutes, will compete the orbit adjustment, setting the stage for release of the four CubeSats \u2014 two for NASA and two for the U.S. military \u2014 at T+plus 2 hours, 14 minutes.<\/p>\n

A fourth and final Centaur burn will deorbit the stage, targeting a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\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 awaits liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, with the Landsat 9 satellite. Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now The launch of a Landsat environmental monitoring satellite Monday from California\u2019s Central Coast will be the first liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket since the company […]<\/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-10948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10948"}],"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=10948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}