 |
 |
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
NRO mission to be first Atlas 5 flight from upgraded pad INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH SERVICES NEWS RELEASE Posted: March 2, 2004 International Launch Services (ILS), a Lockheed Martin Corp. joint venture, has been given the green light for what will be the first Atlas 5 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch will be from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 3-East, which is being refurbished to support a late 2005 launch for this national security mission.
This also is the second Atlas 5/EELV contract for an NRO launch. Details of the payload are classified. ILS has launched five NRO missions on previous versions of Atlas rockets, including two from Vandenberg. The most recent occurred Dec. 2, a month before Lockheed Martin broke ground to upgrade SLC-3E for the more powerful Atlas 5 vehicle. Mark Albrecht, ILS president, noted the "long and valued partnership we have with NRO's Office of Space Launch, using the Atlas vehicles. We fully understand the importance of this NRO mission and look forward to this launch as well as two other Atlas missions, on Atlas 2AS and Atlas 3 vehicles, scheduled for this year." The Atlas 5 vehicle is designed to lift payloads up to 19,000 pounds to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). Lockheed Martin developed the Atlas 5 vehicle to meet Air Force EELV requirements and for ILS commercial missions. The Atlas 5 vehicle has flown three commercial missions since its debut in August 2002, all successfully. ILS markets and manages government and commercial missions on the Atlas rocket to customers worldwide. The company is headquartered near Washington, D.C. The Atlas rockets and their Centaur upper stages are built by
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Denver, Colo.; Harlingen,
Texas; and San Diego, Calif.
|
|
|
|
Soviet Space For the first time ever available in the West. Rocket & Space Corporation Energia: a complete pictorial history of the Soviet/Russian Space Program from 1946 to the present day all in full color. Available from our store. Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide  Viking patch  This embroidered mission patch celebrates NASA's Viking Project which reached the Red Planet in 1976.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Apollo 7 DVD  For 11 days the crew of Apollo 7 fought colds while they put the Apollo spacecraft through a workout, establishing confidence in the machine what would lead directly to the bold decision to send Apollo 8 to the moon just 2 months later.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Gemini 12  Gemini 12: The NASA Mission Reports covers the voyage of James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin that capped the Gemini program's efforts to prove the technologies and techniques that would be needed for the Apollo Moon landings. Includes CD-ROM.Choose your store:U.S. - U.K. - E.U. - Worldwide Apollo Collage  This beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.U.S. STORESTS-127 Patch  The official embroidered patch for shuttle Endeavour's flight to finish building Japanese section of the space station.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STORE Hubble Patch  The official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle's last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STOREProject Orion  The Orion crew exploration vehicle is NASA's first new human spacecraft developed since the space shuttle a quarter-century earlier. The capsule is one of the key elements of returning astronauts to the Moon.U.S. STOREFallen Heroes Patch Collection  The official patches from Apollo 1, the shuttle Challenger and Columbia crews are available in the store.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STOREGet e-mail updates Sign up for our NewsAlert service and have the latest news in astronomy and space e-mailed direct to your desktop (privacy note: your e-mail address will not be used for any other purpose).
|
|
|
INDEX | PLUS | NEWS ARCHIVE | LAUNCH SCHEDULE ASTRONOMY NOW | STORE ADVERTISE © 2009 Spaceflight Now Inc. |
|||||
