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Countdown dress rehearsal a success for Atlas 5 rocket BY JUSTIN RAY SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: November 23, 2004 Lockheed Martin's next Atlas 5 rocket and its Cape Canaveral launch team completed a major test Tuesday in preparation for next month's liftoff to deliver a commercial communications satellite into space.
The rocket's first stage, powered by the Russian-designed RD-180 main engine, was filled with a highly refined kerosene fuel and super-cold liquid oxygen. The Centaur cryogenic upper stage with its single RL10 engine was pumped full of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Following the test, the rocket was drained of propellant and safed. The rocket will be rolled back to its hangar on Wednesday for the final weeks of its pre-flight campaign, which will be highlighted by the attachment of its payload in early December. Liftoff is scheduled for December 16 during a window extending from 4:41 to 6:36 a.m. EST (0941-1136 GMT). It will be the first nighttime launch of Atlas 5. The AMERICOM 16 spacecraft - dubbed AMC 16 for short - will be hauled into geosynchronous transfer orbit by Atlas 5 for Princeton, New Jersey-based satellite operator SES AMERICOM. It will be the third AMERICOM satellite launched on Atlas this year following AMC 10 and 11 on Atlas 2AS vehicles in February and May. The AMC 16 craft is undergoing final testing and fueling at the AstroTech facility in nearby Titusville, Florida. It was flown from the Lockheed Martin manufacturing plant in California on November 8. Schedules call for the satellite to be encapsulated within the two-halves of the rocket's nose cone next Monday. AMC 16 will be transported to the Atlas 5 assembly building on December 3 and mounted atop the rocket.
The primary user of the satellite, once boosted into geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above the planet and positioned at 85 degrees West longitude, will be EchoStar's DISH Network direct-to-home entertainment service. "AMC-16 is strategic for AMERICOM in that it will enable the next generation combination of direct-to-home services to be enjoyed by DISH Network subscribers. As we expand our pivotal relationship with EchoStar, our collaboration on the development of advanced video and broadband solutions is clearly aiming at totally integrated, efficient and affordable systems," said Romain Bausch, chairman of the SES AMERICOM board. The satellite's twin - AMC 15 - was launched in October aboard a Russian Proton booster. Both will be operated by SES AMERICOM under the AMERICOM2Home banner for EchoStar. International Launch Services, which markets Atlas and Proton vehicles, has managed all four AMC satellite deployment missions this year.
We have posted two photo galleries from that inaugural 521-configuration launch that displays the rocket's rollout to the pad on launch morning and the actual liftoff. At least three Atlas 5 launches are expected next year, including another commercial mission in early 2005 carrying a mobile communications satellite for Inmarsat, launch of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in August and the first West Coast liftoff in the fall with a classified national security payload from a newly-overhauled pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. |
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The Boeing Delta rocket launches from Cape Canaveral carrying the Swift gamma-ray observatory. This extended clip follows the mission through second stage ignition and includes onboard video of the nose cone separation. (5min 45sec file)
The Delta rocket's upward-facing video camera captures the nose cone covering Swift being jettisoned about five minutes into flight. (1min 06sec file)
A video camera mounted on the Delta rocket's second stage shows maneuvers to the proper orientation for release of Swift high above Earth and the observatory's successful deployment. (8min 00sec file)
A powerful tracking camera located at Cocoa Beach south of the pad provides this spectacular view from liftoff through the early minutes of flight by the Delta rocket and Swift. (2min 54sec file)
The mobile service tower is rolled back from the Boeing Delta 2 rocket, exposing the vehicle at launch pad 17A just before daybreak. (3min 14sec file)
NASA's X-43A hypersonic aircraft is launched to Mach 10 by a Pegasus rocket booster where the experimental scramjet engine is tested during this third flight of the Hyper-X program. (3min 51sec file)
Mission officials recap the successful flight of NASA's third and final X-43A hypersonic research vehicle during this post-launch news conference. (39min 25sec file)
