Created 14-Nov-25
Modified 14-Nov-25
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from spaceflightnow.com:
United Launch Alliance launched its Atlas 5 rocket Thursday night, which carried a communications satellite for California-based communications company, Viasat.
The launch came a week after the mission was scrubbed due to a faulty liquid oxygen tank vent valve on the Atlas booster. ULA rolled the rocket back to the Vertical Integration Facility about third of a mile away, replaced it with a new valve and returned the rocket to the pad on Nov. 12.
The 6-metric-ton satellite will be launched to a geosynchronous transfer orbit, deploying nearly 3.5 hours after the rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 41 happened at 10:04 p.m. EST (0304 UTC), the opening of a 44-minute-long window. The rocket headed due east upon leaving Florida’s Space Coast.
ULA launched this mission using an Atlas 5 rocket in its 551 configuration. The 196-foot-tall (59.7 meters) rocket was supported by five solid rocket boosters, which combined with the RD-180 main engine to produce about 2.7 million pounds (12 megaNewtons) of thrust at liftoff.
The SRBs jettisoned less than two minutes into the flight, followed by the payload fairings about a minute and a half later. It will take three separate firings of the RL10C-1-1 engine on the Centaur 3 upper stage to reach the correct orbit to release the ViaSat-3 F2 satellite.
Following release, the upper stage will be placed in a so-called graveyard orbit nearly an hour later.
Full story here:
United Launch Alliance launched its Atlas 5 rocket Thursday night, which carried a communications satellite for California-based communications company, Viasat.
The launch came a week after the mission was scrubbed due to a faulty liquid oxygen tank vent valve on the Atlas booster. ULA rolled the rocket back to the Vertical Integration Facility about third of a mile away, replaced it with a new valve and returned the rocket to the pad on Nov. 12.
The 6-metric-ton satellite will be launched to a geosynchronous transfer orbit, deploying nearly 3.5 hours after the rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 41 happened at 10:04 p.m. EST (0304 UTC), the opening of a 44-minute-long window. The rocket headed due east upon leaving Florida’s Space Coast.
ULA launched this mission using an Atlas 5 rocket in its 551 configuration. The 196-foot-tall (59.7 meters) rocket was supported by five solid rocket boosters, which combined with the RD-180 main engine to produce about 2.7 million pounds (12 megaNewtons) of thrust at liftoff.
The SRBs jettisoned less than two minutes into the flight, followed by the payload fairings about a minute and a half later. It will take three separate firings of the RL10C-1-1 engine on the Centaur 3 upper stage to reach the correct orbit to release the ViaSat-3 F2 satellite.
Following release, the upper stage will be placed in a so-called graveyard orbit nearly an hour later.
Full story here:
© Dennis Huff
