The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, standing 191 feet tall and and weighing 745,000 pounds, generates 860,000 pounds of thrust from its main engine to launch NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M.
Video courtesy: NASA TV
See earlier TDRS-M launch coverage.
Two astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station Friday for the first of four spacewalks to repair a $2 billion cosmic ray detector, breezing through work to prep the device for invasive surgery to splice in new coolant pumps and extend the instrument’s life probing the composition of the universe.
The launch of five commercial Iridium message relay satellites and a pair of U.S.-German orbiting geophysics probes on a Falcon 9 rocket from California has been delayed three days to May 22, and a week-long schedule slip to May 31 is expected for the next SpaceX flight from Cape Canaveral with an SES communications payload.
Approaching from behind and below, the Crew Dragon, launched Friday evening from the Kennedy Space Center, passed 1,300 feet directly under the station before looping up to a point 720 feet directly ahead of the outpost. From there, it glided straight in for docking at the Harmony module’s forward port at 12:04 a.m. EDT.
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