SPACE.com -- Atlas Set for Launch with NRO Satellite Tonight

An Atlas 2AS lifts off carrying an NRO satellite from Vandenberg AFB on Sept. 8, 2001.
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An Atlas rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral on July 23, 2001 carrying the GOES-M weather satellite.
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An Atlas 2AS rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral on June 19, 2001 carrying a satellite for ICO Global Communications.
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	Atlas Set for Launch with NRO Satellite Tonight By Kelly Young and Roger Guillemette FLORIDA TODAY posted: 09:00 am ET 10 October 2001

Launch Updates

For the very latest on this Atlas mission see our Next Launch page.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The National Reconnaissance Office is about to improve America's ability to spy on its adversaries.

The nation's primary agency for spy satellites is scheduled to launch a secret cargo on a commercial Atlas 2AS rocket sometime between 10:15 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. today from Launch Pad 36B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The Air Force is not disclosing the exact launch time for security reasons.

"It looks very good," said Ken Warren, a spokesman for Patrick Air Force Base. "There's only a 10 percent chance of bad weather."

That includes the gusty wind that has ripped through Brevard County the past two days. Warren said that, technically speaking, the rocket looks like it is fit to lift off.

The NRO just launched another clandestine satellite on a Titan 4 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday.

This will be the first launch from Cape Canaveral since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Security will remain tight at Cape Canaveral and Patrick Air Force Base for the launch.

The pre-launch announcement from International Launch Services indicates that the secret NRO spacecraft will be injected into a transfer orbit by the Atlas' Centaur upper stage that will eventually place it into a stationary position 22,300 miles above the Equator.

This orbit suggests that the spacecraft is either a signals intelligence satellite, designed to eavesdrop on the communications and electronic emissions of an adversary, or a newer and smaller version of a data relay satellite used to pass on transmissions from other NRO reconnaissance spacecraft back to ground stations on Earth.

The last Atlas 2 rocket probably will fly in 2003; the next rockets in the series are the Atlas 3 and Atlas 5. The first Atlas 5 is scheduled to launch in May.

Steven Siceloff contributed to this article.

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