{"id":16425,"date":"2015-04-01T17:09:40","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T09:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/same-day-rollouts-and-launches-could-return-to-atlas-5-program\/"},"modified":"2015-04-01T17:09:40","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T09:09:40","slug":"same-day-rollouts-and-launches-could-return-to-atlas-5-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/same-day-rollouts-and-launches-could-return-to-atlas-5-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Same day rollouts and launches could return to Atlas 5 program"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_5364\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5364\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5364\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AV036-Rollout-jm-07-681x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Credit: James Murati\/Bionetics Photo Services\" width=\"620\" height=\"932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AV036-Rollout-jm-07-681x1024.jpg 681w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AV036-Rollout-jm-07-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AV036-Rollout-jm-07-768x1154.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AV036-Rollout-jm-07.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5364\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: James Murati\/Bionetics Photo Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 Returning to the days of rollouts and launches in a span of only a few hours, the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 program is looking to resume this whirlwind experience.<\/p>\n<p>It was a procedure used in the early days of the program a decade ago, moving the vehicles from the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral\u2019s Complex 41 mere hours before liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>Five Atlas 5 missions followed this schedule. The first was the second flight of Atlas 5 with the Hellas Sat satellite in 2003 and the most recent was NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launch in August 2005.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Atlas rockets have been rolled out the day before, even two days prior to liftoff.<\/p>\n<p>It is called the \u201cclean pad\u201d approach of working on the rocket within the confines of a building and keeping the vehicle\u2019s stay on the pad to a bare minimum. The pad features no service gantry.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5365\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5365\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5365\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AV036-Rollout-jm-20-681x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Credit: James Murati\/Bionetics Photo Services\" width=\"620\" height=\"932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AV036-Rollout-jm-20-681x1024.jpg 681w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AV036-Rollout-jm-20-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AV036-Rollout-jm-20-768x1154.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/AV036-Rollout-jm-20.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5365\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: James Murati\/Bionetics Photo Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A pair of specially-made \u201ctrackmobiles\u201d push the Atlas 5 rocket\u2019s 1.4-million pound mobile launching platform along rail tracks for an 1,800-foot trip.<\/p>\n<p>Once at the launch pad, autocouplers engage to feed the rocket from the ground and crews will power up the Atlas-Centaur to begin carrying out a prescribed test schedule on various equipment. RP-1 kerosene fuel is loaded into the first stage shortly after arriving at the pad and cryogenic fueling operations start two-hours before liftoff time.<\/p>\n<p>The change could go into practice later this summer, as officials evaluate several missions to implement the roll-and-launch in the same day strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: James Murati\/Bionetics Photo Services CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 Returning to the days of rollouts and launches in a span of only a few hours, the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 program is looking to resume this whirlwind experience. It was a procedure used in the early days of the program a decade ago, moving the [&hellip;]<\/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":[724,1708,3159,750,3082],"class_list":["post-16425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-5","tag-complex-41","tag-rollout","tag-united-launch-alliance","tag-vertical-integration-facility"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16425"}],"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=16425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}