The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, equipped with four strap-on solid-propellant boosters for added performance, was transfered from its assembly building to the pad at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 to deliver the GOES-R weather satellite into space.
Liftoff is planned for Saturday at 5:42 p.m. EST (2242 GMT).
The rocket was wheeled out aboard a mobile launcher platform, emerging from the hangar where the rocket’s two stages and the payload were integrated over the past three weeks.
The slow drive from the 30-story Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad used a pair of specially-made “trackmobiles” to carry the rocket’s 1.4-million pound launching platform along rail tracks for the 1,800-foot trip.
The rocket is flying the 541 vehicle configuration. The version features two stages, four solids and a five-meter-diameter nose cone. It is powered off the launch pad by an RD AMROSS RD-180 main engine and Aerojet Rocketdyne solids. The Centaur upper stage has an Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10C-1 cryogenic engine.
Photo credit: United Launch Alliance
See earlier GOES-R coverage.
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