Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Atlas V's Maiden Launch a Success

Posted by michael on from the who-cares-where-they-come-down dept.

PyroMosh writes "The next generation expendable heavy lifting rocket, the Atlas 5, lifted off today from Cape Canaveral Air Station. The American rocket, built by Lockheed Martin, sporting Russian RD-180 engines carried the Eutelsat Hotbird 6 telecommunications satellite into orbit. This next generation heavy lifter can out-lift any rocket built since the Saturn V 'Moon rocket', including the shuttle." Spaceflightnow has extensive coverage.

4 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Tech tree by flonker · · Score: 3, Funny

    Heavy Lifter? Great! Now to get the extraterrestrial mining science science advance, all we need is to research the low orbit freighter.

    Or whatever. It's been so long since I played Outpost.

  2. Maiden Launch by saihung · · Score: 3, Funny

    You wouldn't call it that if you saw what the Atlas V was doing with the Ariane II out behind the launch pad.

  3. But the Americans ARE going metric. by Pholostan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Inch by inch!

    --

    Everybody knows that we are the evil boys, making noise with deadly toys.
  4. Payload? Sombody is confoozed. by Snarph · · Score: 2, Funny
    From CNN:
    In the future, more robust Atlas 5s are expected to take almost two times the payload of past Atlas 3s, or slightly more than four tons of cargo into geostationary orbit, which is about 22,241 miles (35,786 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.
    From Lockheed-Martin:
    The Atlas V family is designed to lift payloads up to 19,000 pounds (nearly 8,700 kg) to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).
    So which is it? Let me guess. Someone at CNN saw 8700kg and thought that was 4 tons...