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Atlas 5 rocket topped with payload for Dec. 17 launch BY JUSTIN RAY SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: December 6, 2004 A commercial television broadcast satellite and the rocket that will boost it into space -- Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 rocket -- were joined together today at Cape Canaveral.
With the payload now installed, the completed vehicle will undergo the critical Integrated Systems Test between Atlas 5 and AMERICOM 16 on Wednesday. Since arriving in Florida last month, the satellite was fueled, tested and encapsulated in the rocket's nose cone at the Astrotech processing building in Titusville. The mobile platform will wheel the rocket to its launch pad on the evening of Thursday, December 16 for the final hours of the countdown. Liftoff is scheduled for 4:41 a.m. EST on Friday, December 17 at the opening of a 2-hour, 40-minute window that extends to 7:21 a.m. EST (0941-1221 GMT). Last week, officials moved the launch date to December 17. The one-day delay was necessary to replace a component in the rocket's Range Safety system. The AMERICOM 16 spacecraft is headed for geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above Earth where it will be operated by Princeton, New Jersey-based SES AMERICOM. Direct-to-home television service provider EchoStar has a deal with SES AMERICOM to use the satellite to beam its programming to DISH Network subscribers across the United States.
In other Atlas launch news, workers at Cape Canaveral's pad 36B continue on-pad stacking of the final Atlas 3 rocket. The first stage and Centaur stage were erected last week. That mission is scheduled for the end of January carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload. Meanwhile, the first stage and Centaur for another Atlas 5 have been delivered to the Cape from Lockheed Martin's manufacturing plant near Denver. The stages are being tested in the Atlas 5 Spaceflight Operations Center in preparation for launch in March carrying an Inmarsat mobile communications satellite. Once the AMC 16 launch occurs, the mobile platform will roll from the pad to the Vertical Integration Facility so that the Inmarsat rocket can be assembled. |
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The Space shuttle Endeavour lifts off at 4:26 a.m. on December 2, 1993 for the daring mission to fix the flawed vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. (3min 44sec file)
The Russian Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft with the Expedition 10 crew undocks from the International Space Station's Pirs module for the capsule's relocation to another docking port. (2min 19sec file)
After backing away from the space station, the Soyuz capsule performs a roll maneuver for alignment to prepare for linkup with the new docking port. (2min 04sec file)
Spectacular views of the Russian Soyuz capsule flying over the Earth were captured by station cameras during the move between docking ports. (3min 35sec file)
Expedition 10 returns to the space station with a successful docking to the Zarya control module's Earth-facing docking port, completing the Soyuz relocation. (1min 50sec file)
External television cameras on the International Space Station provide views of the Soyuz's final approach and docking to Zarya. (3min 34sec file)
