Cape Canaveral, Fla. – The United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched the Atlas V rocket into space today (April 13) following a series of delays due to hardware issues and poor weather conditions at the launch site.
The rocket from the 206-foot-tall (63-meter) Rocket Space Launch Complex exploded at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station here in Florida at 3:33 p.m. EST (2232૨ GMT) with a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office fee. Which manages the US government’s fleet of spy satellites.
Designated NROL-111, the mission is the ULA’s fifth launch so far this year; The company has launched several other payloads for the military as well as NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. The National Reconnaissance Office Fee (NRO) is stingy with details about the payload, which is typical for this type of mission, but confirms that the payload was designed and built by the NRO.
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Originally scheduled to begin on November 3, the mission was delayed by the first 24 hours when the team noticed an issue with the vehicle’s environmental control system. A hardware swap was ordered and the crew worked to replace the damaged environmental control system hose, which provides conditioned air to the rocket payload.
The rocket was rotated back to the pad for a second attempt at launch. As the countdown progressed, the teams noticed an issue with the vehicle’s fuel system, which prevented the rocket from being loaded with superchild oxygen, one of its propellants. The countdown stopped and the launch was postponed again.
On Monday (Nov. November) the tropical storm that became stronger in Hurricane Ata caused the most delay by Mother Nature and threatened to bring rain and wind to Florida as hurricanes cut across the state. Luckily, Eta was short-lived, allowing a dramatic improvement in weather conditions at the Cape on Friday.
Weather forecasters predicted a 90% chance of favorable conditions at the liftoff on Friday night, as cumulus clouds are the only cause for concern.
Today’s launch marks the 29th mission for the NRO and the 17th such mission launched on the Atlas V (another 12 launches on the company’s Delta IV rockets.) The NROL-101 mission marks the 86th flight of the Atlas V since the rocket’s launch. 2002.
The NRO uses these “eyes in the sky” to provide optical and radar images of the Earth from space, as well as to send and intercept secure communications to various intelligence agencies.
As always with this type of mission, the NRO has not disclosed many details about this launch or its payload. However, warning notices issued to pilots and boaters and a mission profile animation from the ULA indicate that the rocket is flying over the Northeast Gota which will eventually place it in a high-tilt orbit with a regular view of the Northern Hemisphere.
The ULA has another government payload on a nearby pad. A Delta IV Heavy is set to launch the NROL-44 payload for orbit sometime this year. That mission, which arose due to a hardware issue on the pad, was originally scheduled to take place in August, but has been postponed indefinitely.
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On Thursday afternoon (November 12) the afternoon turned to a two-stage Atlas V Pad from a nearby integration facility for its fourth launch attempt. Once in place, the crew began preparing the rocket for its flight.
Atlas V is a pure form of kerosene used for spaceflight from a mixture of liquid oxygen and RP-1, and a mixture of liquid hydrogen in its upper phase, which was loaded into a rocket on Friday afternoon. Three solid rocket motors flying the vehicle in the “531” configuration, with payload ferries of 17.7-foot (5.4 m) diameter, will mark the first NRO mission to use this variant.
It was the fourth time overall that the Atlas V flew in the 531 configuration, and the first mission to use newly upgraded solid rocket motors. The previous three flights of this version were in the US. Advanced Advanced High Frequency (AEHF) communications satellites for the military.
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The rocket’s belt-booster boosters, called GEM 63, were manufactured by Northrop Gruman and were designed to replace previous models made by the Roget RocketDin. Each 66-foot long (20m) rocket motors packs a further 373,800 pounds of thrust. According to the ULA, the GEM 63A is easier to handle and costs less than previous iterations.
Once ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket flies, it will be powered by the Beefier version of Solid Rocket Motors, called GEM 63 63 XL. By testing a smaller version on the Atlas V, the rocket manufacturer plans to thoroughly test GEM’s capabilities before putting any straps on the Vulcan.
Preparations for the launch of the NROL-111 began a few months ago on September 11, when teams began stacking the Atlas V rocket inside the integration facility adjacent to the pad. ULA teams started by hoisting the first phase at the top of the Atlas Mobile Launch launching platform, then adding a trio of solid rocket motors to the vehicle and finally the upper phase. The payload was installed on 26 October.
Today’s launch was the first in a double-header planned this weekend, as SpaceX prepares to launch its next crew mission to the International Space Station. On Saturday evening (November 14), the Falcon 9 is preparing to explode from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with rocket Pad 39, with which he took a crew of four astronauts.
If all goes according to plan, Mike Hopkins, Shannon Waker, Victor Glover and Japan’s Sochi Noguchi will land a .5..5 hour flight for the ISS. The crew is to stay at the station for six months, embarking on the first long-term mission to launch from Florida. The lift is set for 7:49 a.m. EST (November 15, 0049 GMT), and will be broadcast live on LaunchSpace.com.
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