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Atlas 5 Rocket Launches $400 Million NASA Satellite Into Space (spaceflightnow.com)
A new communications hub has been successfully deployed in space today thanks to the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. "TDRS is a critical national asset have because of its importance to the space station and all of our science missions, primarily the Hubble Space Telescope and Earth science missions that use TDRS," said Tim Dunn, NASA's TDRS-M launch director. Spaceflight Now reports: With its main engine running at full throttle, the Atlas 5 booster lifted off at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral. The 191-foot-tall rocket, generating 860,000 pounds of thrust, aimed eastward and accelerated out of the atmosphere with NASA's TDRS-M spacecraft. Within just five minutes, the rocket had shed 92 percent of its liftoff weight and transitioned to the high-energy Centaur upper stage. An elliptical parking orbit was achieved within 18 minutes of takeoff, beginning a 90-minute quiescent coast higher through space to reach the optimum conditions for the second burn by Centaur. That minute-long boost over the Indian Ocean propelled the 7,610-pound payload into a customized high-perigee geosynchronous transfer orbit. The spacecraft was deployed by the launcher at T+plus 1 hour, 53 minutes to cheers and handshakes all around.
The $408 million TDRS-M was built and launched with the sole purpose to extend the useful life of NASA's constant communications infrastructure, supporting the astronauts around-the-clock aboard the International Space Station, supplying contact with the Hubble Space Telescope and transmitting the data from almost 40 science spacecraft studying Earth's environment and space.
The $408 million TDRS-M was built and launched with the sole purpose to extend the useful life of NASA's constant communications infrastructure, supporting the astronauts around-the-clock aboard the International Space Station, supplying contact with the Hubble Space Telescope and transmitting the data from almost 40 science spacecraft studying Earth's environment and space.
Maybe this will make more sense when TDRS is running?
Pretty exciting! Were they able to land the first stage? How much did the launch cost?
Even with Trump in the WH we rule!
Nothing even landed back on Earth on a pillar of flame. Space-X has ruined ordinary throwaway the booster launches for everyone.
And those engines are something like 30+ years old. Not the design, but the actual engines.
I think you have them mixed up with the NK-33s. The RD-180s are being continuously produced.
Ezekiel 23:20
That would mostly be the USA, Eastern Europe, and Ethiopia.
Most of the comments carry a whiff of desperation as ULA tries to stay relevant during a time when SpaceX is driving down the cost of launches. The discrepancy is only going to get worse when SpaceX starts recovering the second stage.
Sorry, ULA, but it looks like you're destined to become a casualty of the creative destruction of capitalism. SpaceX built a better mousetrap and you're invested in yesterday's technology.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
They are still getting up there - transport has been outsourced to the Russians, just like with elections.
Italy?
oh my god it's so terrible. We totally don't have jet airliners with engines that old.... No no, they rip those things out every couple of weeks, like a software thing.
Say, are you a programmer?
"RD AMROSS, a limited liability company, is a U.S. joint venture between Pratt & Whitney of West Palm Beach, Florida and NPO Energomash of Khimki, Russia based in Jupiter, Florida.
"NPO Energomash manufactures the RD-180 rocket engine for RD AMROSS, and provides designing, manufacturing, testing and other services for liquid propulsion rocket engines. The RD-180 provides the main thrust on the Atlas V launch vehicle made by the United Launch Alliance...
"Under RD AMROSS, Pratt & Whitney is licensed to produce the RD-180 in the United States. Originally, production of the RD-180 in the US was scheduled to begin in 2008, but this did not happen. According to a 2005 GAO Assessment of Selected Major Weapon Programs, Pratt & Whitney planned to start building the engine in the United States with a first military launch by 2012. This, too, did not happen. In 2014, the Defense Department estimated that it would require approximately $1 billion and five years to begin US domestic manufacture of the RD-180 engine.
"In late April 2014, SpaceX filed a complaint seeking an injunction against the continued import of the Russian made rocket motor as a result of the US sanctions against Russia over its policies and practices in the Ukraine. The US Federal Court of Appeals granted the injunction".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
So it looks as though there will be a strictly limited number of Atlas 5 launches in future. Just until they run out of stocks of RD-180s.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
"With its Russian main engine running at full throttle, the Atlas 5 booster lifted off at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral. The 191-foot-tall rocket, with its Russian first stage generating 860,000 pounds of thrust, aimed eastward and accelerated out of the atmosphere with NASA's TDRS-M spacecraft".
FTFH
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
The military and the NRO use a substantial portion of the TDRS systems bandwidth as well.
As soon as we can ship White Europeans back to Europe where they came from.
Native Americans.
That ban was lifted almost two years ago.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Was nice to read in depth about this for a change, each one of these launches should be front page news.