ULA’s Atlas 5 Launches Two Space Force Satellites to Test Early Warning Technology Written 5 July 2022
A ULA Atlas 5 rocket carrying two experimental U.S. Space Force satellites lifts off on Friday, July 1, 2022. | Credit: Spaceflight Now; YouTube; framegrab
CBS News reported that “after waiting out cloudy weather, the U.S. Space Force launched two satellites atop an Atlas 5 rocket Friday to test ballistic and hypersonic missile early warning and tracking technology and to deploy a maneuverable spacecraft carrying an unknown number of classified payloads.” United Launch Alliance’s 196-foot-tall rocket lifted off at 7:15 p.m. EDT from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, “knifing through low clouds and quickly disappearing from view as it streaked away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean. Eleven minutes later, the Aerojet Rocketdyne engine powering the rocket’s second stage completed the first of three planned firings designed to put the two satellites in a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator.” According to CBS News, the “trip was expected to take about six hours, ending early Saturday with the satellites’ deployment from the Centaur second stage.”
Full Story (CBS News)
Video
Atlas 5 rocket launch with U.S. Space Force experimental satellites, July 1, 2022
(Spaceflight Now via YouTube)