CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The new Atlas 5 rocket slowly rolled along a railroad track back into its protective shelter Wednesday afternoon at pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The Lockheed Martin-built booster had just finished its final practice countdown before its scheduled Aug. 12 liftoff, carrying the Hot Bird 6 communications satellite for Eutelsat.
With a diameter of 12.5 feet (3.8 meters), the rocket will be the largest to launch from Cape Canaveral since the Saturn 5 sent Apollo astronauts to the moon. It will replace Lockheed Martin's Titan rockets, which lofted an array of spy satellites and interplanetary probes.
The Atlas 5 and Boeing's Delta 4 rockets are part of the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program aimed at reducing launch costs by 25 percent. The Air Force gave each company $500 million toward the program.
The Department of Defense and related agencies will be major customers for both vehicles. The Pentagon has scheduled 29 launches aboard the rockets.
In addition to competing with each other for customers, the rockets will vie for contracts against foreign rockets such as the European Ariane 5.
Both rockets initially were scheduled to make their inaugural launches this spring within about a week of each other, but various delays have pushed them back to later in the year. "From our perspective, we have been trying to focus on launching successfully," said Atlas program manager Adrian Laffitte. "Not who gets there first. I think if in the process we happen to be first, that's just gravy."
For the first time Wednesday morning, workers moved back the protective tower from around the new Delta 4 rocket, Boeing's contribution to the heavy-lift market. That booster is set for liftoff as early as Sept. 25.
"I never really felt like there was a race," said Joy Bryant, the Delta 4 launch site director.
The Air Force plans to upgrade the Eastern Range from Sept. 9 to Oct. 4, which could interfere with Boeing's preferred September launch date.
Boeing has scheduled two practice countdowns in August and plans to fire the rocket's new engines later that month.
The Delta 4 will carry a satellite for Eutelsat.
"We have been making very good progress," Bryant said. "We're right on schedule, not been making any delays in the schedule."
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