Atlas V rocket launching 2 satellites for the US Place Force Friday: Check out it live
A potent United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket will start two “neighborhood look at” satellites for the United States Area Drive on Friday (Jan. 21), and you can check out the action live.
The Atlas V is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station on Friday at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT). If all goes in accordance to strategy, the rocket will produce two identical Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Plan (GSSAP) satellites to a in the vicinity of-geosynchronous orbit, about 22,300 miles (36,000 kilometers) earlier mentioned the equator.
Enjoy the launch in the window below or on House.com’s property site, courtesy of ULA, or immediately by means of the company.
Associated: What is the U.S. Place Pressure?
The satellites will be the fifth and sixth GSSAP spacecraft to just take flight. ULA released the very first four on two distinct flights, 1 in 2014 and the other in 2016. Both of those of all those previous missions employed Delta IV Medium rockets, which were being retired in 2019.
GSSAP satellites help U.S. Place Command continue to keep tabs on the traffic in geosynchronous orbit, wherever a satellite’s orbital velocity matches the speed of Earth’s rotation. This is a prized perch for weather, communications and surveillance satellites, mainly because spacecraft there “hover” around the exact patch of the world constantly (the similar longitude, anyway).
GSSAP satellites “give neighborhood enjoy services in the Geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), improving upon flight basic safety for all spacefaring nations functioning in that orbit,” ULA representatives wrote in a mission description.
“Increased posture know-how of satellites at that distance enhances the capacity to alert a spacecraft proprietor/operator if there is yet another object predicted to method much too intently and generate a harmful situation,” they extra. “Facts from the GSSAP will uniquely contribute to timely and accurate orbital predictions, boosting our know-how of the GEO setting and additional enabling spaceflight basic safety which include satellite collision avoidance.”
Friday’s flight will be the to start with at any time for an Atlas V in the 511 configuration — one that attributes a 5-meter-large (16.5 toes) payload fairing, a single-motor Centaur higher stage and one stable rocket booster strapped to the rocket’s facet.
The 511 is the only Atlas V variant that has but to fly, ULA associates wrote in the mission description. But a near cousin of that edition — the 411, which sports a 4-m-vast (13.2 ft) payload fairing — has flown 50 % a dozen periods, they extra.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018 illustrated by Karl Tate), a reserve about the look for for alien existence. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Abide by us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.
A potent United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket will start two “neighborhood look at” satellites for the United States Area Drive on Friday (Jan. 21), and you can check out the action live.
The Atlas V is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station on Friday at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT). If all goes in accordance to strategy, the rocket will produce two identical Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Plan (GSSAP) satellites to a in the vicinity of-geosynchronous orbit, about 22,300 miles (36,000 kilometers) earlier mentioned the equator.
Enjoy the launch in the window below or on House.com’s property site, courtesy of ULA, or immediately by means of the company.
Associated: What is the U.S. Place Pressure?
The satellites will be the fifth and sixth GSSAP spacecraft to just take flight. ULA released the very first four on two distinct flights, 1 in 2014 and the other in 2016. Both of those of all those previous missions employed Delta IV Medium rockets, which were being retired in 2019.
GSSAP satellites help U.S. Place Command continue to keep tabs on the traffic in geosynchronous orbit, wherever a satellite’s orbital velocity matches the speed of Earth’s rotation. This is a prized perch for weather, communications and surveillance satellites, mainly because spacecraft there “hover” around the exact patch of the world constantly (the similar longitude, anyway).
GSSAP satellites “give neighborhood enjoy services in the Geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO), improving upon flight basic safety for all spacefaring nations functioning in that orbit,” ULA representatives wrote in a mission description.
“Increased posture know-how of satellites at that distance enhances the capacity to alert a spacecraft proprietor/operator if there is yet another object predicted to method much too intently and generate a harmful situation,” they extra. “Facts from the GSSAP will uniquely contribute to timely and accurate orbital predictions, boosting our know-how of the GEO setting and additional enabling spaceflight basic safety which include satellite collision avoidance.”
Friday’s flight will be the to start with at any time for an Atlas V in the 511 configuration — one that attributes a 5-meter-large (16.5 toes) payload fairing, a single-motor Centaur higher stage and one stable rocket booster strapped to the rocket’s facet.
The 511 is the only Atlas V variant that has but to fly, ULA associates wrote in the mission description. But a near cousin of that edition — the 411, which sports a 4-m-vast (13.2 ft) payload fairing — has flown 50 % a dozen periods, they extra.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018 illustrated by Karl Tate), a reserve about the look for for alien existence. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Abide by us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.
