An Atlas 5 rocket
launched spaceward late Thursday, hauling a clutch of six military research satellites into orbit for the U.S.
Air Force.
The United Launch
Alliance (ULA) booster shot into the night sky above Florida's Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:10 p.m. EST (0310 March 9 GMT) carrying two Orbital
Express spacecraft refueling demonstrators and four experimental microsatellites
under the Air Force's Space Test Program-1 (STP-1) mission [image].
"This
is a proud moment in our company's history and a significant step forward in
providing our nation assured access to space using the most cost-effective
means possible," Michael Gass, ULA president and CEO, said in a post-launch
statement, adding that the space shot marked the first launch of an expendable
Atlas booster for the U.S. Air Force.
Thursday's space
shot occurred about a half hour later than planned due to launch range radio
interference and booster vent valve issues, though both proved only short delays.
Orbital
Express, microsatellites reach orbit
The
flagship of the STP-1 mission is Orbital Express, a two-spacecraft mission to
demonstrate the feasibility of autonomously servicing a satellite in space.
Built for
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the $300 million vehicles
include the 2,100-pound (952-kilogram) ASTRO
servicing satellite and its 500-pound (226-kilogram) target NextSat [image].
The spacecraft are expected to spend about three months testing
autonomous satellite rendezvous, refueling and component replacement [image]
in Earth orbit.
"We're very
proud to be at this point," USAF Lt. Col. Fred Kennedy, project manager for
Orbital Express, said in a telephone interview before launch. "We've been
working a long time to be at this stage."
Shortly
after the Orbital Express spacecraft were deployed at 10:28 p.m. EST (0328
March 9 GMT), the MidStar-1 microsatellite -- built by midshipmen at the U.S.
Naval Academy [image]
-- successfully reached orbit.
The 265-pound
(116-kilogram) satellite carries a series of experiments, including a pair
of space computer payloads, the Eclipse experiment to examine electrochemical membranes
in space for NASA and Eclipse Energy Systems, and a prototype microdosimeter
sponsored by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI).
The ULA
Atlas 5 rocket also orbited three other small spacecraft:
- STPsat-1:
A 343-pound (156-kilogram) satellite carrying two experiments to collect
atmospheric data and demonstrate spacecraft technologies for the U.S. Air
Force's Space Test Program [image].
- Cibola
Flight Experiment (CFEsat): A 350-pound (159-kilogram) satellite built for
the Los Alamos National Laboratory to test a series of new technologies,
including inflatable boom antennas, a new power supply and a prototype
supercomputer designed to process data onboard rather than sending raw
information directly to Earth [image].
- FalconSat-3:
Built by cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy, the small, 119-pound (54-kilogram)
satellite carries five experiments to study the near-Earth space plasma
environment, test new hardware and demonstrate a Micropropulsion Attitude
Control System [image].
"STP-1
required an extraordinary level of coordination and innovation to achieve the
mission requirements," Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president of Atlas programs, said
in a statement. "One of those innovations was the mission design to achieve the
two mission orbits, which was enabled by the development of a very flexible new
guidance design."
Thursday's launch marked
the 80th consecutive successful space shot for an Atlas rocket and the ninth flight
of the booster family's Atlas 5 variant.
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