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  BY JUSTIN RAY Follow the countdown and launch of the Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket with the European ASTRA 1KR television broadcasting spacecraft. Reload this page for the latest on the mission.
1327 GMT (9:27 a.m. EDT) The vehicle is being powered up, and the launch team is preparing to start the final pre-flight system tests and the steps to ready for cryogenic fueling. All of that work will be accomplished during the next few hours. At 1:37 p.m. EDT, the count will enter a planned 30-minute built-in hold at the T-minus 120 minute mark. This pause gives the launch team the opportunity to catch up on any work running behind the timeline or deal with technical glitches. A poll of team members occurs five minutes before the end of the hold to verify everyone is ready for liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen fueling. Chilling of propellant lines and tanks is performed to thermally condition the equipment in preparation for flowing the super-cold fuels. Centaur liquid oxygen loading should begin at about 2:34 p.m., followed by Atlas first stage liquid oxygen and finally Centaur hydrogen fueling. A final hold is planned at T-minus 4 minutes. This will be a 10-minute hold starting at 4:13 p.m. to conduct readiness polls of senior management, the launch team members, Range and weather. If all elements are deemed "go" for launch, the clock will resume ticking at 4:23 p.m. The launch window extends from 4:27 to 7:16 p.m. EDT. Watch this page for play-by-play reports on the countdown throughout the day!
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2006 The 19-story rocket was transported from its assembly building to the launch pad on Wednesday. The move took less than 30 minutes. "The roll was nominal, in fact, a little bit ahead of schedule. So that is a good omen for tomorrow, hopefully," Atlas launch director Jerry Jamison said. Liftoff is still targeted for 4:27 p.m. EDT (2027 GMT). Launch could occur as late as 7:16 p.m. if problems crop up. Atop the rocket is the ASTRA 1KR spacecraft, which weighs 9,548 pounds. That's equivalent to three Volkswagon Golf automobiles, officials from satellite-operator SES ASTRA note. The Atlas 5's RD-180 main engine and a single strap-on solid-fuel motor will generate 1.2 million pounds of thrust to power off the launch pad. "It is very difficult to actually sense how big this mission this, how big this satellite is, how heavy this is and how big that rocket is. It is an extremely impressive piece of equipment," said Martin Halliwell, SES ASTRA's chief technical officer. ASTRA 1KR will beam hundreds of television channels directly to homes of ASTRA system subscribers across Europe. The service is similar to the American DIRECTV system. Lockheed Martin built ASTRA 1KR. Company controllers will spend a week maneuvering the craft into geostationary orbit, followed by deployment of the appendages and another week of testing onboard systems. Handover of the satellite to SES ASTRA is expected arond May 5, allowing operators in Betzdorf, Luxembourg to perform an extensive checkout of the communications payload and positioning of the craft at its final orbital slot. "We look forward to a good ride on Atlas 5 and a good mission for ASTRA 1KR," said Mark Pasquale, a vice president with Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems. Officials anticipate the satellite will enter commercial service on June 18, beginning a planned life of 15 years. It will replace the aging ASTRA 1B and ASTRA 1C spacecraft launched in the early 1990s.
1520 GMT (11:20 a.m. EDT) The next few hours will be spent connecting the mobile launch platform with umbilicals from the pad and performing leak checks on the fuel lines. The "trackmobiles" used in the rollout will disengage from the platform and depart the pad. A pre-launch news conference is scheduled for this afternoon. We'll post a full update later today. Liftoff remains set for 4:27 p.m. EDT (2027 GMT) tomorrow.
1454 GMT (10:54 a.m. EDT) To learn more about the "clean pad" concept used by Lockheed Martin for the Atlas 5 program, see our complete story.
TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2006 Watch this page for live updates throughout the countdown.
1545 GMT (11:45 a.m. EDT)
MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2006 Blastoff time for the ASTRA 1KR satellite from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral is Thursday at 4:27 p.m. EDT (2027 GMT), the opening of a two-hour, 49-minute window of opportunity to begin a 15-year mission in space. Weather forecasters expect favorable conditions. The 191-foot tall rocket will be transferred from its assembly building to the launch pad aboard a 1.4-million pound mobile platform beginning around 10:50 a.m. Wednesday. The third-of-a-mile trip along rail tracks should take a half-hour. The Atlas program is seeking its 79th consecutive successful launch extending back to 1993, an enviable record unmatched in today's rocket market. In fact, the modern Atlas 2, 3 and 5 rocket families have unblemished histories. Thursday's flight will offer a highly unusual sight for spectators. Unlike earlier Atlas 5 missions that have used either multiple or simply no strap-on solid rocket motors, this launch features a single white booster mounted to the first stage. Since the next-generation rocket's beginnings, Lockheed Martin designers have touted the vehicle's ability to fly with just the number of solid-fuel boosters necessary to loft the payload weight aboard. Each Atlas 5 rocket is tailored to its cargo with enough thrust to do the job, even if that means attaching an uneven number of solid motors. The philosphy behind the design, officials say, makes each rocket only as complex as it needs to be and avoids flying a vehicle with too much excess power that would be wasted. The ASTRA 1KR mission was booked on the Atlas 5-411 version, which has a four-meter nose cone covering the satellite, one solid rocket booster and a single-engine Centaur. The rocket should launch safely with the unique one-booster configuration, officials explain, because the first stage main engine -- the dual-nozzle Russian-made RD-180 -- provides plenty of steering control during ascent. Engineers also note that two of the seven previous Atlas 5 launches have flown successfully with uneven numbers of solids attached to the first stage, including the commercial Inmarsat mission a year ago with two boosters strapped to the rocket's south side and one on the north; and January's New Horizons launch to Pluto with two on the south and three motors on the north. After Wednesday's rollout to the launch pad, the mobile platform will be locked into position, the transporter carriages pulled away and propellant lines hooked up. Thursday's countdown begins at 9:27 a.m. when the Atlas 5 is powered up. Fueling of the rocket with supercold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen starts just after 2:30 p.m. A 10-minute planned built-in hold is scheduled at T-minus 4 minutes, beginning at 4:13 p.m., to give the launch team a chance to evaluate all systems before going into the final phase of the countdown. The RD-180 engine ignites at T-minus 2.7 seconds, roaring with pad-shaking thunder while undergoing a check to ensure its vital signs are healthy. Then the command is issued to ignite the single solid rocket motor for liftoff. The Aerojet-made solid booster will burn for about 95 seconds to generate a quarter-million pounds of thrust, on average, to assist the RD-180 in propelling the rocket skyward. After the spent booster is jettisoned, the kerosene-fueled first stage will continue to fire for a couple of minutes before shutting down and separating. That leaves the hydrogen-fueled Centaur upper stage to ignite for a lengthy burn that will inject itself and ASTRA 1KR into a preliminary orbit with a high point of 13,945 miles, low point of 104 miles and inclination of 24.83 degrees. Centaur completes its first burn over the Central Atlantic Ocean nearly 18 minutes after liftoff. The stage then coasts in the parking orbit for almost 90 minutes, cruising over Africa and the Western Indian Ocean before the Pratt & Whitney RL10 cryogenic engine is restarted. That second Centaur firing will last a minute-and-a-half to send the 9,550-pound ASTRA spacecraft into a geosynchronous transfer orbit with an apogee of 22,237 miles, perigee of 3,860 miles and inclination of 23.97 degrees. Deployment of the payload to complete the eighth Atlas 5 mission is expected an hour and 48 minutes after liftoff, or 6:15 p.m. given an on-time launch. The satellite will use an onboard engine to circularize its orbit into a geostationary one, parking over the equator at 19.2 degrees East longitude to replace the aging ASTRA 1B and ASTRA 1C spacecraft launched in 1991 and 1993, respectively. ASTRA 1KR was built by Lockheed Martin using the A2100AX model design. It is equipped with 32 Ku-band transponders to transmit the programming directly to small receiving dishes on homes across Europe. The original ASTRA 1K craft was lost in a Russian Proton rocket launch failure three-and-a-half years ago. The ASTRA system, operated by SES ASTRA of Betzdorf, Luxembourg, serves over 100 million households and includes a fleet of satellites relaying more than 1,600 TV and radio channels.
SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 2006
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2006 Assembly of the Lockheed Martin rocket started Wednesday at the Complex 41 Vertical Integration Facility, when the 10-story tall bronze first stage was hoisted upright on the mobile launch platform. The stage features a Russian-designed RD-180 main engine that burns a highly refined kerosene and supercold liquid oxygen. One Aerojet strap-on solid rocket booster will be added to the side of the first stage on Friday. The thin white motor is packed with solid propellant to give the Atlas 5 extra thrust for the first minute-and-a-half of flight. The Centaur upper stage is scheduled to be mounted atop the rocket next week. The single Pratt & Whitney-built RL10 engine is fed with cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It will be the eighth flight of Atlas 5 but the first to employ the 411 vehicle configuration distinguished by with four-meter nose cone, one solid booster and one Centaur engine. Previous Atlas 5 missions has used either multiple strap-on solids or none; a cargo's weight dictates the number of boosters needed. The payload for this mission is the ASTRA 1KR direct-to-home television broadcast satellite that will serve millions of homes across Europe from geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above the planet. Read our full story. |
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This 25th anniversary celebration of the first space shuttle launch took place April 12 at Space Center Houston. Speakers included Johnson Space Center Director Mike Coats, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, Congressman Tom DeLay, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, STS-1 commander John Young and pilot Bob Crippen. 
Dial-up: 
During this NASA news conference on April 10, agency officials unveil the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, that will launch piggyback with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft in October 2008. LCROSS will use the launch vehicle's spent upper stage to crash into the moon's south pole in an explosive search for water.
Daniel Andrews, the LCROSS project manager from NASA's Ames Research Center, narrates this animation depicting the mission from launch through impact on the lunar surface.
In this highly entertaining program, commander John Young and pilot Bob Crippen of the first space shuttle crew tell stories and memories from STS-1. The two respected astronauts visited Kennedy Space Center on April 6 to mark the upcoming 25th anniversary of Columbia's maiden voyage.
