Churning out the launches at a rapid pace, the Atlas 5 program sent another rocket soaring like clockwork Thursday for deployment of a national security satellite duo from California.
A replay of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launching the classified NROL-55 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
The 8-million-pound mobile service tower is retracted from around the Atlas 5 rocket, revealing the 19-story-tall vehicle for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on NROL-55.
Orbital ATK plans to launch its next two commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station on Atlas 5 rockets, grabbing a launch slot in March after a next-generation U.S. weather satellite was delayed, industry officials said.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 5:49 a.m. local time (8:49 a.m. EDT; 1249 GMT) Thursday on the classified National Reconnaissance Office NROL-55 mission.
Poised for its one and only satellite launch of the year, the National Reconnaissance Office will conduct a hush-hush flight Thursday using a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from California.
This photo gallery shows the classified National Reconnaissance Office payload, already encapsulated in the 14-foot-diameter nose cone, being lifted atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas-Centaur rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base for liftoff Oct. 8.
The 100th flight by United Launch Alliance took off Friday for deployment of a sophisticated geomobile communications satellite to bridge the digital divide in Mexico while extending the rocket company’s unparalleled record of success in launching $80 billion in space assets.