The mission will mark the debut of the new Atlas III, which will be powered by a RD-180 engine built by NPO Energomash of Khimky, Russia, a company considered the premier rocket engine manufacturer in the former Soviet Union. It also will be the culmination of a $400 million international rocket development effort that dates back to 1995.
"Were ready to go. Im ready to light this candle," said John Karas, a vice president with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.
The Atlas III will haul the 7,018-pound (3,190 kilogram) spacecraft toward an orbit some 22,300 miles above Earth. Owned by EUTELSAT, a Paris-based consortium considered Europes leading satellite operator, the satellite will provide direct-to-home digital television broadcasting and Internet services to customers in Russia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Next up will be the planned launch Thursday of NASAs shuttle Atlantis and an International Space Station maintenance crew. Scrubbed by windy weather three times in late April, the mission now is scheduled to get under way during a 10-minute launch window that will open at 6:33 a.m. (10:33 a.m. GMT) Thursday.
NASA is targeting the launch for 6:38 a.m. (10:38 a.m. GMT) that day. A three-day launch countdown is scheduled to pick up at Kennedy Space Center at 9:30 a.m. Monday, and shuttle-fueling operations are set to begin about 9:42 p.m. Wednesday (Thursday, 1:42 a.m. GMT).
The shuttles crew -- which includes six American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut -- will set out to repair station electrical systems that have exceeded their warranty, mount construction cranes outside the outpost, and nudge the unfinished lab -- which has been sinking slightly due to increased solar activity -- into a higher orbit.
Routine countdown and launch preparations are continuing without any significant hitches.
"The pre-launch steps are virtually complete," said KSC news chief Bruce Buckingham. "As far as the vehicle is concerned, were not working any problems."
The only potential shuttle showstopper: Back-to-back Atlas launch delays.
"We cant get there from here (at KSC) on those days with the performance of the vehicle and the distance that the station would be at when we launched.You would have to use too much fuel to get there, and you wouldnt have sufficient reserves to perform safe operations in orbit."
Lockheed Martin will have three days -- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday -- to get the Atlas III airborne. Should the flight slip to Wednesday, the shuttle launch automatically will be delayed until Friday.
The reason: It would take 24 hours to reset equipment on the Air Forces Eastern Range, which provides tracking, range safety, scheduling and weather forecasting services for all launches from Floridas Space Coast.
One other wild card to be aware of: A shuttle launch delay beyond May 21 would cause a bit of a scheduling headache for NASA. The agency cannot launch Atlantis on May 22 or May 24 because the shuttle would have to consume too much fuel to get to the International Space Station on either of those days.
"We cant get there from here (at KSC) on those days with the performance of the vehicle and the distance that the station would be at when we launched," Buckingham said. "You would have to use too much fuel to get there, and you wouldnt have sufficient reserves to perform safe operations in orbit."
Should the Atlas III and shuttle Atlantis missions take off as scheduled though, the flights would cap a flurry of five Florida launches in just 16 days.
A Lockheed Martin Atlas 2 rocket hurled a $200 million hurricane-tracking satellite into orbit on May 3, an Air Force Titan 4 lofted a $250 million missile warning satellite on May 8, and an Air Force Delta 2 rocket launched a $42 million military navigation satellite on May 10.
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