The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket unleashes two million pounds of thrust at 7:19 p.m. to blast off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on the NROL-35 mission.
Credit: Pat Corkery/United Launch Alliance
Mission Reports
Boe pulled from commercial crew test flight due to medical issue
Atlas 5
Preview: NASA science-enabling relay satellite poised for launch
Resembling a cocooned insect with antennas and appendages tucked snuggly to its body for launch, NASA’s latest communications relay hub will be shot into space Friday to blossom in geosynchronous orbit for routing signals to and from the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and three dozen science observatories.
Mission Reports
United Launch Alliance nears first fueling test on Vulcan rocket
United Launch Alliance could load cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen propellants into a Vulcan rocket test article at Cape Canaveral for the first time in the coming weeks, timing key tests for the next-generation rocket in between flights of Atlas 5 rockets that will share the same launch complex for the next few years.