{"id":11349,"date":"2022-08-10T19:56:02","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T11:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-cape-canaverals-first-launch-doubleheader-in-more-than-50-years\/"},"modified":"2022-08-10T19:56:02","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T11:56:02","slug":"photos-cape-canaverals-first-launch-doubleheader-in-more-than-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-cape-canaverals-first-launch-doubleheader-in-more-than-50-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Cape Canaveral\u2019s first launch doubleheader in more than 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Left: A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off at 6:29 a.m. EDT (1029 GMT) on Aug. 4 from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with the U.S. military\u2019s SBIRS GEO 6 missile warning satellite; Right: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at 7:08 p.m. EDT (2308 GMT) on Aug. 4 with the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter mission. Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Aug. 4 occurred 12 hours and 39 minutes after the liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the shortest turnaround between two orbital-class missions at the Florida spaceport since Sept. 7 and 8, 1967.<\/p>\n

The back-to-back missions in 1967 included a Thor Delta G rocket and an Atlas Centaur rocket that launched less than 10 hours apart. The Thor Delta G rocket launched a recoverable spacecraft called Biosatellite 2 with a host of biological research experiments, and the Atlas Centaur sent NASA\u2019s Surveyor 5 lander to the moon.<\/p>\n

The two launches Aug. 4 also marked the first time Cape Canaveral hosted the launch of two space missions on the same calendar day since Nov. 11, 1966.<\/p>\n

The launch doubleheader began with the liftoff of ULA\u2019s Atlas 5 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at 6:29 a.m. EDT (1029 GMT) carrying the U.S. Space Force\u2019s SBIRS GEO 6 missile warning satellite. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40, a mile-and-a-half (2.5 kilometers) to the south of pad 41, at 7:08 p.m. EDT (2308 GMT) with the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter mission.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Space Force-run Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral has worked to reduce the time required to reconfigure range safety infrastructure between launches.<\/p>\n

The shortened turnaround time is largely made possible by the introduction of autonomous flight termination systems on rockets, which would issue an automated self-destruct command in the event of an in-flight failure. Older flight termination system designs require a range safety officer on the ground to track the rocket and, if necessary, issue the destruct command through a radio uplink signal.<\/p>\n

The first batch of photos below show the liftoff of ULA\u2019s 194-foot-tall (59-meter) Atlas 5 rocket at dawn. Two strap-on solid rocket boosters and a Russian-made, kerosene-fueled RD-180 engine generated 1.6 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.<\/p>\n

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

The next group of photos shows the launch of SpaceX\u2019s 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket with the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter mission. The Falcon 9 was powered off the launch pad by nine kerosene-fueled Merlin 1D engines producing about 1.7 million pounds of thrust.<\/p>\n

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

Left: A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off at 6:29 a.m. EDT (1029 GMT) on Aug. 4 from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with the U.S. military\u2019s SBIRS GEO 6 missile warning satellite; Right: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at 7:08 p.m. EDT (2308 GMT) […]<\/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-11349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11349"}],"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=11349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}