October 27, 2025
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Breaking News
  • [ October 26, 2025 ] Live coverage: SpaceX to launch 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from California Falcon 9
  • [ October 25, 2025 ] SpaceX marks 5th anniversary of first Starlink customer with Sunday satellite launch Falcon 9
  • [ October 24, 2025 ] SpaceX surpasses 2024 orbital launch record with Saturday Starlink mission Falcon 9
  • [ October 24, 2025 ] Airbus, Leonardo and Thales agree to form new European company News
  • [ October 23, 2025 ] SpaceX expends Falcon 9 booster to launch Spainsat NG 2 communications satellite Falcon 9

Video: Missile alert satellite launches atop Atlas 5

January 21, 2017 Justin Ray

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 189 feet tall and and weighing 720,000 pounds, unleashes 860,000 pounds of thrust from its main engine to launch the SBIRS GEO Flight 3 early-warning satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Launch preparations

See earlier SBIRS GEO Flight 3 coverage.

Our Atlas archive.

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Related Articles

Mission Reports

Crucial first fueling test on tap for SLS core stage later this month

October 9, 2020 Stephen Clark

If all goes according to plan, engineers in southern Mississippi later this month will load cryogenic propellants into the core stage of a rocket NASA says will launch astronauts back to the moon, exposing its tankage and internal plumbing to extreme operating conditions hundreds of degrees below zero for the first time. The fueling test — a major milestone in its own right — is a precursor to a high-stakes eight-minute test-firing of the Space Launch System’s four shuttle-era main engines planned as soon as November.

News

Photos: More Atlas 5 launch shots

September 3, 2015 Justin Ray

Another batch of Atlas 5 rocket launch photos from Wednesday’s flight for the U.S. Navy carrying the Mobile User Objective System spacecraft.

Members

STS-133 onboard camera launch video

February 24, 2011 Spaceflight Now

The final flight of Space Shuttle Discovery seen from the ET-Cam mounted near the top of its fuel tank. Mission STS-133 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on February 24, 2011. (Membership required)

News Headlines

  • Live coverage: SpaceX to launch 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from California
    October 26, 2025
  • SpaceX marks 5th anniversary of first Starlink customer with Sunday satellite launch
    October 25, 2025
  • SpaceX surpasses 2024 orbital launch record with Saturday Starlink mission
    October 24, 2025
  • Airbus, Leonardo and Thales agree to form new European company
    October 24, 2025
  • SpaceX expends Falcon 9 booster to launch Spainsat NG 2 communications satellite
    October 23, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on 550th Falcon 9 mission
    October 22, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg
    October 18, 2025
  • SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket on record-breaking 31st flight
    October 18, 2025
  • Orion spacecraft arrives at VAB ahead of stacking for Artemis 2
    October 17, 2025
  • SpaceX sends 28 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit in predawn launch
    October 15, 2025
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