28.09.2017
ULA's launch now planned for Oct. 5
An upcoming rocket launch in Florida that some had thought could take off Thursday has instead been scheduled for next week.
A 90-minute window for a planned United Launch Alliance launch of a National Reconnaissance Office satellite will open at 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 5 from the Space Coast.
The satellite will take off on United Launch Alliance’s workhorse Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The launch will serve as an illustration that United Launch Alliance, long a preferred launch partner for the U.S. military, will still land launches even as competitor SpaceX has started to make inroads into that area of business.
Elon Musk’s company executed its first launch for the military in April, when it launched the NROL-76 satellite.
The classified NROL-52 mission will be United Launch Alliance’s seventh launch of the year.
Its purpose, as is typical with NRO satellites, is confidential but an article on the website Spaceflight101.com said there is a “high degree of certainty” that it will be part of the NRO’s Space Data System.
The Space Data System relays data between satellites and support the U.S. Air Force.
Quelle: Orlando Sentinel
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Atlas V to Launch NROL-52
- Rocket: Atlas V 421
- Mission: NROL-52
- Launch Date: Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017
- Launch Period: 3:30-5 a.m. EDT
- Live Broadcast:Stay tuned for how you can watch live
- Launch Location: Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Launch Notes: The NROL-52 mission will mark ULA’s seventh launch of 2017 and 26th for the National Reconnaissance Office. NROL-52 will be the 74th flight of the Atlas V rocket and the seventh in the 421 configuration.
Launch Updates: To keep up to speed with updates to the launch countdown, dial the ULA launch hotline at 1-877-852-4321 or join the conversation at www.facebook.com/ulalaunch, twitter.com/ulalaunchand instagram.com/ulalaunch; hashtags #AtlasV and #NROL52.
Go Atlas! Go Centaur! Go NROL-52!
Quelle: ULA
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Update: 3.10.2017
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Atlas 5 to execute another space-lift mission for U.S. spy satellite agency
CAPE CANAVERAL — An early bird rocket launch from the Florida spaceport will take to the skies before dawn Thursday when an Atlas 5 lofts a classified U.S. government satellite.
United Launch Alliance will send up the clandestine NROL-52 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency responsible for the country’s fleet of spy satellites.
The Launch readiness Review was passed Monday. Rollout of the rocket to the Complex 41 pad occurs Tuesday.
Thursday’s liftoff is scheduled for 4:07 a.m. EDT (0807 GMT), and weather forecasters give a 60 percent chance of acceptable launch conditions.
Standing 194 feet tall and weighing nearly a million pounds once fully fueled, the Atlas 5 rocket, designated AV-075, will produce nearly 1.6 million pounds of thrust at liftoff from its main engine and two side-mounted solid-fuel boosters.
The trajectory will take the rocket eastward, likely toward a geosynchronous transfer orbit.
A similar Atlas 5 variant launched the NROL-61 mission along the same flight path last summer.
Both missions were assigned to ULA as part of the 36-core Block Buy from the U.S. Air Force.
Then-Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James testified to the U.S. Senate, in questions about the Block Buy, that the pair of missions were “already on fixed-price contracts that include provisions for an Atlas 5 launch vehicle provided as government furnished equipment.”
And the satellites’ mass to orbit, she said, exceeded the capabilities of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 lift capabilities at the time of award.
Those factors made the missions unsuitable for competition and left ULA as the only U.S. firm that could launch the payloads.
Created in 1961 and operated in total secrecy as a black organization until its existence was declassified in 1992, the NRO is the joint Department of Defense–Intelligence Community organization responsible for developing, launching and operating America’s national security spy satellites.
“The NRO is a small, flat, end-to-end organization fully capable of successfully delivering an increasingly capable, integrated resilient and affordable architecture. We have control of every function required, from the R&D that enables us to stay ahead of targets and threats, to the acquisitions required to deliver new capabilities to respond to changing mission imperatives in the field,” NRO Director Betty Sapp said in testimony to Congress this year.
The NRO is the nation’s eyes and ears in space, supporting policy makers, the Armed Services, the Intelligence Community, Departments of State, Justice and Treasury, and civil agencies.
“We contribute to global intelligence, military and homeland security operations, while simultaneously assisting with the formation of national policy and achieving diplomatic goals. We provide direct support to U.S. warfighters, help protect U.S. borders and contribute significantly to the fight against ISIS and other counter-terrorism operations. NRO capabilities contribute to the U.S.’s ability to improve battlespace awareness, deter aggression and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, combat terrorism, identify and track High-Value Targets and conduct security operations worldwide,” Sapp testified.
“The NRO is advancing the sensor sensitivity of overhead SIGINT and GEOINT capabilities to collect against power signals and fleeting targets. We are improving the area persistence of our space-based systems to provide greater “time on target” to observe and characterize activities and the potential relationship between activities. We are working to reduce “sensor to shooter” timelines to get the right information to those who need it, when they need it. We’re also developing smaller, less expensive satellites that can be launched in larger quantities to enhance our current architecture performance against high value and fleeting targets.”
This launch comes less than two weeks after another Atlas 5 successfully deployed the NROL-42 surveillance satellite into a highly elliptical, highly inclined Molniya-style orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
It was the 25th NRO launch successfully carried out by United Launch Alliance.
** ULA LAUNCHES FOR NRO ** Delta 322: NROL-21 on D2-7920 (Dec. 14, 2006) Vandenberg AV-009: NROL-30 using Atlas 5-401 (June 15, 2007) Cape AV-015: NROL-24 using Atlas 5-401 (Dec. 10, 2007) Cape AV-006: NROL-28 using Atlas 5-411 (March 13, 2008) Vandenberg Delta 337: NROL-26 on D4-Heavy (Jan. 17, 2009) Cape AV-025: NROL-41 using Atlas 5-501 (Sept. 20, 2010) Vandenberg Delta 351: NROL-32 on D4-Heavy (Nov. 21, 2010) Cape Delta 352: NROL-49 on D4-Heavy (Jan. 20, 2011) Vandenberg Delta 353: NROL-27 on D4-Medium+ (March 11, 2011) Cape AV-027: NROL-34 using Atlas 5-411 (April 14, 2011) Vandenberg Delta 359: NROL-25 on D4-Medium+ (April 3, 2012) Vandenberg AV-023: NROL-38 using Atlas 5-401 (June 20, 2012) Cape Delta 360: NROL-15 on D4-Heavy (June 29, 2012) Cape AV-033: NROL-36 using Atlas 5-401 (Sept. 13, 2012) Vandenberg Delta 364: NROL-65 on D4-Heavy (Aug. 28, 2013) Vandenberg AV-042: NROL-39 using Atlas 5-501 (Dec. 5, 2013) Vandenberg AV-045: NROL-67 using Atlas 5-541 (April 10, 2014) Cape AV-046: NROL-33 using Atlas 5-401 (May 22, 2014) Cape AV-051: NROL-35 using Atlas 5-541 (Dec. 13, 2014) Vandenberg AV-058: NROL-55 using Atlas 5-401 (Oct. 8, 2015) Vandenberg Delta 373: NROL-45 on D4-Medium+ (Feb. 10, 2016) Vandenberg Delta 374: NROL-37 on D4-Heavy (June 11, 2016) Cape AV-065: NROL-61 using Atlas 5-421 (July 28, 2016) Cape AV-068: NROL-79 using Atlas 5-401 (March 1, 2017) Vandenberg AV-072: NROL-42 using Atlas 5-541 (Sept. 23, 2017) Vandenberg
ULA is scheduled to perform its fourth launch just this year for the NRO in December using a Delta 4 from Vandenberg.
Thursday’s launch will be the sixth and final of the year for the Atlas 5, all carrying missions in the national interest. Late deliveries of several more payloads, however, delayed five additional flights originally planned for 2017 until next year.
Quelle: SN
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Update: 5.09.2017
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Weather a challenge for planned Thursday launch of Atlas V
The forecast for the planned 3:30 a.m. Thursday launch of an Atlas V with a National Reconnaissance Office satellite says there's a 40 percent chance of bad weather.
A 90-minute window for a planned United Launch Alliance launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will compete with a tropical wave system near the Bahamas, and if there’s a 24-hour delay, the chance of bad weather increases to 70 percent, according to the 45th Space Wing forecast given at 8 a.m. Wednesday.
If it launches, the satellite will be carried aboard the ULA’s workhorse Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41.
The launch will serve as an illustration that United Launch Alliance, long a preferred launch partner for the U.S. military, will still land launches even as competitor SpaceX has started to make inroads into that area of business.
Elon Musk’s company executed its first launch for the military in April, when it launched the NROL-76 satellite.
The classified NROL-52 mission will be United Launch Alliance’s seventh launch of the year.
Its purpose, as is typical with NRO satellites, is confidential but an article on the website Spaceflight101.com said there is a “high degree of certainty” that it will be part of the NRO’s Space Data System.
The Space Data System relays data between satellites and support the U.S. Air Force.
Got a news tip? msantana@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5256; Twitter, @marcosantana