{"id":13014,"date":"2019-08-09T01:49:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T17:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-atlas-5-paints-the-sky-with-spectacular-sunrise-launch\/"},"modified":"2019-08-09T01:49:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T17:49:11","slug":"photos-atlas-5-paints-the-sky-with-spectacular-sunrise-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-atlas-5-paints-the-sky-with-spectacular-sunrise-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Atlas 5 paints the sky with spectacular sunrise launch"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Skywatchers and early risers across Florida enjoyed dazzling views of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket climbing into space Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral with a U.S. military communications satellite.<\/p>\n

Flying in its most powerful configuration with five strap-on solid rocket boosters, the Atlas 5 blasted off from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:13 a.m. EDT (1013 GMT) Thursday, more than a half-hour before sunrise.<\/p>\n

ULA\u2019s launch team kept the 197-foot-tall (60-meter) rocket on the ground for 29 extra minutes as engineers evaluated several technical issues involving the Atlas 5\u2019s GPS tracking system, the rocket\u2019s first stage steering system, and a concern related to data patching.<\/p>\n

The launch team resolved all the technical issues and gave approval to proceed with the final four minutes of the countdown.<\/p>\n

The delay ended up placing the Atlas 5\u2019s launch time at the right moment in the morning twilight to allow the rocket to climb into sunlight high up in the atmosphere around two minutes into the mission. The sunlight illuminated the Atlas 5\u2019s exhaust plume and ice particles, creating a prominent teardrop-shaped cloud in the sky.<\/p>\n

The rocket\u2019s five strap-on boosters and payload fairing also shimmered in the morning sun as they fell into the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida, adding to the spectacle.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s mission marked the 80th flight of an Atlas 5 rocket since August 2002, and the first Atlas 5 mission this year. It as the 10th orbital launch from Cape Canaveral so far in 2019.<\/p>\n

See our Mission Status Center for continuing coverage of the flight.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve posted more photos of the Atlas 5\u2019s launch below on this page.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Ben Cooper \/ Launchphotography.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Ben Cooper \/ Launchphotography.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Ben Cooper \/ Launchphotography.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

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

Credit: Alex Polimeni \/ Spaceflight Now Skywatchers and early risers across Florida enjoyed dazzling views of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket climbing into space Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral with a U.S. military communications satellite. Flying in its most powerful configuration with five strap-on solid rocket boosters, the Atlas 5 blasted off from […]<\/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":[2301,2302,2537,724,2538,1695,1392,1708],"class_list":["post-13014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-a2100","tag-aehf","tag-aehf-5","tag-atlas-5","tag-av-083","tag-cape-canaveral","tag-centaur","tag-complex-41"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13014"}],"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=13014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}