Firing five solid rocket motors alongside its liquid-fueled main engine, the 206-foot rocket lifted off on time at 10:30 a.m. with 2.5 million pounds of thrust, trailing a long plume of shimmering exhaust as it climbed through blue sky toward a blazing sun.
Atop the rocket as it headed southeast over the Atlantic Ocean was the fifth satellite in the Navy’s $7.7 billion Mobile User Objective System program, or MUOS.
The program is billed as a military cell phone network in the sky that eventually will allow mobile forces in remote or contested locations, from open ocean to dense urban areas, to talk and send messages simultaneously, as if using a smart phone.
The system’s full capability, including a tenfold capacity increase over the Navy's existing satellite network, won’t be realized until ground radios complete testing and are fielded widely over the next year or two.
The satellite launched Friday, labeled MUOS-5, was scheduled to be deployed nearly three hours after liftoff, on its way to an orbit 22,300 miles over the equator.
Built by Lockheed Martin, the satellite initially will support others forming the military's most used communications network. It will serve as a spare in orbit for the more advanced features offered by its four predecessors, which began launching in 2012.
The mission was the first by ULA's Atlas V rocket in three months. An early shutdown by the rocket's Russian-made RD-180 main engine during a successful March 22 flight prompted an investigation and a minor change to a valve system.
Friday's flight was said to be proceeding as planned through the second of three firings by the rocket's Centaur upper stage engine provided by Aerojet Rocketdyne.
The launch was the third from Cape Canaveral in 14 days, a period during which ULA showcased its two biggest rockets.
A heavy-lift Delta IV, the most powerful rocket flying today, launched a U.S. reconnaissance satellite on June 11. Four days later, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 put a commercial communications satellite in orbit.
The Eastern Range will take a break until mid-July. SpaceX is targeting a Falcon 9 launch of International Space Station supplies no earlier than July 18. ULA could launch another national security mission on an Atlas V in late July.
By: James Dean (Florida Today).
Photo: Universe Today.
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