A United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifted off yesterday from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the 4th Geostationary Satellite in the Space-Based Infrared System, a collection of specialty satellites operated by the United States Air Force designed to assist the United States military in situational awareness in the battlefield, especially regarding missile launches and missile defense scenarios.
The launch vehicle was, specifically, an Atlas V 411 configuration, rather unique compared to most every other launch system in that it uses a single solid rocket booster for added thrust. You would think this would be a rather uneven force and cause the rocket to spin to its own destruction, but the RD-180 engines and the guidance system of the Atlas V are perfectly able to balance out thrust and fly as they should. It’s still one of the strangest things to see in rocketry, but it works, so I’m not complaining!
This has to be one of the most beautiful images I’ve ever seen of a rocket launch. Absolutely perfect!
This launch was delayed from the 18th, but had no issues in launching at its scheduled time on the 19th. It was, as always, a beautiful launch and unlike the NROL missions which I often follow here, this mission was covered beyond staging, so we could see as it coasted over the Atlantic Ocean towards the equator and, while over Africa, the Centaur stage fired putting the payload into the target orbit for the launch.
As always, we’ve got the launch livestream here for you to enjoy. I’ll set it time wise to just before liftoff, but if you want to watch the full countdown and launch just go back to the beginning of the video.
Enjoy!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_V
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-Based_Infrared_System