Atlas 5 NROL-55 launch full broadcast

Expanding a single instant in time to 30 minutes, the upcoming Atlas 5 rockets with Cygnus cargo-delivery freighters bound for the International Space Station will have an unprecedented opportunity available to launch each day.

A flight demonstration of an inflatable heat shield that could be used to retrieve reusable engines from United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan rocket, and for the delivery of heavier cargo to the surface of Mars, is planned for launch in late 2021 or early 2022 as a piggyback payload on an Atlas 5 rocket with a NOAA weather satellite.

The U.S. military wants to launch the final DMSP weather spacecraft, but the fate of the bird that is designed to observe the world’s weather for the warfighter is now waiting approval from Congress.