Atlas 5

Fueled up for a 12-year mission of exploration, NASA’s Lucy science probe is nearly ready for launch Oct. 16 from Florida’s Space Coast to begin a journey through the solar system to visit eight asteroids, a record number for a single mission.

Shrouded in a veil of fog, an Atlas 5 rocket fired away from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Monday with the Landsat 9 remote sensing satellite.

NASA and United Launch Alliance deployed a new Landsat satellite in orbit Monday after liftoff on an Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, marking the 2,000th launch from the West Coast spaceport since 1958 and extending a series of Earth observations used by farmers, urban planners, and climate scientists.

A United Launch Atlas 5 rocket is set for launch with the Landsat 9 satellite, a joint project between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, and four small CubeSat rideshare payloads.

NASA and United Launch Alliance launched the Landsat 9 satellite aboard an Atlas 5 rocket Monday at 11:12 a.m. PDT (2:12 p.m. EDT; 1812 GMT) from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The new satellite, developed in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, will extend an unbroken nearly 50-year record of environmental images.

The launch of a Landsat environmental monitoring satellite Monday from California’s Central Coast will be the first liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket since the company confirmed there will be 29 more Atlas 5 flights before the Atlas family’s retirement.

The Landsat 9 satellite is set for launch Sept. 27 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. These photos show the encapsulation of the environmental monitoring spacecraft inside the payload fairing of its Atlas 5 launcher.

The head of NASA’s space operations division said this week an unpiloted test flight of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule to the International Space Station, delayed from August by valve problems, will likely not launch until next year.

The next Landsat observatory has been mounted on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in California for liftoff Sept. 27, continuing an unbroken record of Earth observations to track urban sprawl, water usage, tropical deforestation, retreating glaciers, and more over the last half-century.