United Launch Alliance — a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing — is livestreaming tonight’s launch of an Atlas V rocket. UPI reports:
The rocket is set to blast-off at 7:13 p.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida… The primary payload is the Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM, or CBAS, a geostationary communications satellite… Behind the CBAS payload is EAGLE, a platform capable of releasing several secondary payloads into space. According to Gunter’s Space Page, EAGLE is carrying five additional payloads, all experimental satellites.
Here’s a good overview of the mission:
Saturday’s mission will begin with ignition of the Atlas Common Core Booster’s RD-180 engine, 2.7 seconds before the countdown reaches zero… Five Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ-60A solid rocket motors will augment the CCB at liftoff, igniting about T+1.1 seconds as the rocket lifts off. Climbing away from Cape Canaveral, AV-079 will begin a series of pitch and yaw maneuvers 3.9 seconds into its mission, placing the rocket onto an 89.9-degree azimuth — almost due East — for the journey into orbit. Atlas will reach Mach 1, the speed of sound, 34.4 seconds after liftoff, passing through the area of maximum dynamic pressure — Max-Q — eleven-and-a-half seconds later.

Long-time Slashdot reader Zorro also shares an interesting remark by the CEO of Boeing when asked if Boeing’s cancelled Sonic Cruiser might be making a comeback. “‘Something better,’ teased the Boeing boss, promising point-to-point connectivity anywhere on Earth in a matter of hours.”

And when asked whether Boeing might launch a car into space, he replied instead that “We might pick up the one that’s out there and bring it back.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – ULA Is Livestreaming An Atlas V Rocket Launch