The 8-million-pound mobile service tower is retracted from around the Atlas 5 rocket, revealing the 20-story-tall vehicle for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
Credit: ULA
Credit: ULACredit: ULA
Credit: James Murati/BioneticsCredit: James Murati/Bionetics
Relive the steps to stack the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket at Cape Canaveral’s Vertical Integration Facility for the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo freighter for the space station. The first stage was erected initially, followed by the interstage and Centaur stage, then the encapsulated payload.
Watch the pre-launch news conference held Monday, March 21 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to preview liftoff of the Orbital ATK commercial Cygnus cargo ship aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket for the International Space Station.
The 75th Atlas 5 rocket rolled to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on Wednesday, a day before it was scheduled to lift off with a U.S. Air Force satellite to provide warnings of missile launches that might threaten U.S. territories and allies.