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ULA Is Livestreaming An Atlas V Rocket Launch (upi.com)

United Launch Alliance -- a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing -- is livestreaming tonight's launch of an Atlas V rocket. UPI reports: The rocket is set to blast-off at 7:13 p.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida... The primary payload is the Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM, or CBAS, a geostationary communications satellite... Behind the CBAS payload is EAGLE, a platform capable of releasing several secondary payloads into space. According to Gunter's Space Page, EAGLE is carrying five additional payloads, all experimental satellites.
Here's a good overview of the mission: Saturday's mission will begin with ignition of the Atlas Common Core Booster's RD-180 engine, 2.7 seconds before the countdown reaches zero... Five Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ-60A solid rocket motors will augment the CCB at liftoff, igniting about T+1.1 seconds as the rocket lifts off. Climbing away from Cape Canaveral, AV-079 will begin a series of pitch and yaw maneuvers 3.9 seconds into its mission, placing the rocket onto an 89.9-degree azimuth -- almost due East -- for the journey into orbit. Atlas will reach Mach 1, the speed of sound, 34.4 seconds after liftoff, passing through the area of maximum dynamic pressure -- Max-Q -- eleven-and-a-half seconds later.
Long-time Slashdot reader Zorro also shares an interesting remark by the CEO of Boeing when asked if Boeing's cancelled Sonic Cruiser might be making a comeback. "'Something better,' teased the Boeing boss, promising point-to-point connectivity anywhere on Earth in a matter of hours."

And when asked whether Boeing might launch a car into space, he replied instead that "We might pick up the one that's out there and bring it back."

59 comments

  1. A Christmas Story? by rotorbudd · · Score: 1

    It's Ralphie doing the commentary!

    --
    A bullet may have your name on it, but artillery is addressed to " Whom It May concern"
    1. Re:A Christmas Story? by Rei · · Score: 1

      I did a screenshot of him and then punched it into Google reverse image search. Google identified the image as "Bowtie" and suggested the website "How to tie a bow tie".

      Of the people it thought he looked like: link

      --
      I will pull over this spaceship right now!
    2. Re:A Christmas Story? by rotorbudd · · Score: 1

      I think it was the glasses for me.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it, but artillery is addressed to " Whom It May concern"
    3. Re:A Christmas Story? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just released a case of cockroaches onto your vile conversation.

    4. Re:A Christmas Story? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      It's Ralphie doing the commentary!

      Yeah there was some resemblance.

      I would say though, that ULA has it all over SpaceX's coverage.

      Disclaimer - I am a fan of SpaceX, not it's launch coverage.

      ULA has a lot of information on how they do their launches. It was enjoyable t watch, and l'm a slut for rh sound and fury of the take-off.

      Then there was the Falcon Heavy launch. Much hype. Many we are awesome. Very cheer.

      More like a mutant science/reality/college football game show.

      It was a little obvious that someone at a mixer was bringing up the crowd cheering. But the icing on the cake was when Spacex decided we wanted the crowd cheering to be the sound we heard when the Falcon 9 heavy candle was lit. Wrong.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    5. Re:A Christmas Story? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      I'd disagree. The production values on the ULA program were laughable. Camera menus on screen? Please.

      Both ULA and SpaceX can be faulted (when I'm in Aspie mode) for silliness and fluff, at least SpaceX gave us the technical broadcasts. Sometimes. But I'm glad ULA is moving into the Modern World. It was nice to see some of the details of the launch. And to be fair, it's hard to pace a rocket launch. Has about as much internal excitement as an NFL game.

      But the bow tie? Now, that's just not playing fair.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    6. Re:A Christmas Story? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      I'd disagree. The production values on the ULA program were laughable. Camera menus on screen? Please.

      Both ULA and SpaceX can be faulted (when I'm in Aspie mode) for silliness and fluff, at least SpaceX gave us the technical broadcasts. Sometimes. But I'm glad ULA is moving into the Modern World. It was nice to see some of the details of the launch. And to be fair, it's hard to pace a rocket launch. Has about as much internal excitement as an NFL game.

      But the bow tie? Now, that's just not playing fair.

      Well, production values are one thing. But it is pretty obvious that SpaceX has decided that hearing people cheer is much more important than the roar of a rocket engine.

      And those cheers and their fade-in and out could have been the same thing played over and over again. There were also surprisingly few views of the SpaceX Falcon9 Heavy. I'm perhaps not alone in preferring to hear the roar of the barely contained explosion of rocket engines.

      I get it. Getting people interested in STEM. But only a few ever will be, and you'll never get a person who is interested in being cool, or likes say, Braxton Family Values or Here comes Honey Boo-Boo or Keeping up with the Kardashians to have a mental dilemma choosing STEM over something else.

      But people who are actually interested or working in the field want the real noise, not a cheering studio audience that you might find on Let's make a Deal.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    7. Re:A Christmas Story? by Rei · · Score: 1

      "Studio audience"? Cheers "played over and over again"? Are you kidding?

      The latest Slashdot conspiracy theory: SpaceX uses prerecorded cheering during launches.

      --
      I will pull over this spaceship right now!
    8. Re:A Christmas Story? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      "Studio audience"? Cheers "played over and over again"? Are you kidding?

      The latest Slashdot conspiracy theory: SpaceX uses prerecorded cheering during launches.

      Whooshies! But I'll give it a pass because it's kinda funny.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  2. Re:TRUMP!! by Howitzer86 · · Score: 1

    I see Slashdot's the stand-in for the oh-so-necessary livestream discussion that ULA disabled for some reason...

  3. Sad by Rei · · Score: 1

    Sad to see those SRBs when they jetison them. After seeing so many SpaceX launches, I automatically expect to see them orient themselves and then do a boostback burn. Then I have to remind myself... no, there's nothing about this craft that's going to be landing, it's all disposable.

    --
    I will pull over this spaceship right now!
    1. Re:Sad by Rei · · Score: 1

      And now it's just narration while we stare at some bored-looking men in suits in mission control.

      --
      I will pull over this spaceship right now!
    2. Re:Sad by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0

      So, because you saw some other spacecraft, you assume all spacecraft are going to be the same? Seriously? And you call yourself intelligent?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    3. Re:Sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you've seen the advances another company has taken, yes. It's sad to see old technology being so wasteful.

    4. Re:Sad by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      But it's competition, and competition makes every player better.

    5. Re:Sad by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      It's literally the most advanced technology in the world. The idea that "why aren't all of them equally advanced" is so intellectually infantile I don't even know where to start. It's the sort of thought a seven-year-old would have.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    6. Re:Sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, I'm not seeing dumping the SRBs as wasteful. I'm seeing landing a rocket as an amazing gross waste of fuel for a publicity stunt. That's an amazing amount of fuel wasted and CO2 and toxins dumped into the atmosphere in order to get publicity.

    7. Re:Sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure you can come up with the numbers to quantify this 'amazing amount of fuel wasted', right? This is not just your underbelly speaking, right?

    8. Re:Sad by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      I'm seeing landing a rocket as an amazing gross waste of fuel

      Shh, don't anyone tell him about the American car fuel waste! His head would EXPLODE!

      ...for a publicity stunt.

      No, not really. Re-manufacturing aerospace-grade hardware costs WAY more money and effort and environmental destruction than, say, ten tonnes of kerosene.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    9. Re: Sad by D.McG. · · Score: 2

      The RD-180 used on Atlas may be the most advanced kerosene fueled rocket engine, but seriously, Atlas and Centaur are behind others in avionics. They do their job well (the ascent) but as the OP stated, it invokes an emotional response that six pieces of suborbital hardware are just going to tumble back to sea at terminal velocity and sink.

    10. Re:Sad by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Somebody is going to put up a split picture view of a SpaceX launch and a ULA event. A lot of the shots will look remarkably similar.

      And then there will the the mission control sequences. A more succinct visual of the differences between the two approaches could not be made.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    11. Re:Sad by sjames · · Score: 1

      Since SpaceX actually does reuse the recovered boosters, it's obviously more than a publicity stunt.

  4. A message to ULA: by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    A message to ULA: Don't bother; you're not interesting.

    1. Re:A message to ULA: by Rei · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Meh, they're trying. Belatedly.

      But yeah... this isn't exactly on par with watching a SpaceX launch. Even if they seemed more excited about their work, the fact that they don't seem to be trying to really achieve anything meaningful, pushing envelopes on what can be done... that sort of guarantees that they're not going to make as interesting of a webcast.

      But again... at least they're trying.

      --
      I will pull over this spaceship right now!
    2. Re:A message to ULA: by thrich81 · · Score: 2

      I will say this for this particular launch, with all those strap on SRBs, that rocket got up and went when it left the launch pad. The Falcons and other launches I've watched lately kind of lazily climbed off the pad. This one looked like an Estes rocket in comparison.
      Otherwise, I agree with your general sentiment. Even the quality of the in-flight video wasn't as good as Space-X and we didn't get to see the staging.

    3. Re:A message to ULA: by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      ACES will be cool...*if* it gets eventually built.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    4. Re: A message to ULA: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are contractually prohibited from it. SpaceX is winning, but the game is rigged. ULA is contractually obligated to an amazing amount of engineering for each launch, while congress told us to give SpaceX a space rating, engineering be damned.

      Oh, and understand that ULA is a court ordered conglomerate. It's not "Boeing "

    5. Re: A message to ULA: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you an AC or AF? I'm confused.

    6. Re: A message to ULA: by D.McG. · · Score: 1

      Those five strap on SRBs do help don't they! Strap three F9 boosters together to make a Falcon Heavy and you'll get a similar thrust to weight ratio at liftoff. For GEO missions, it's all about minimizing the gravity losses to have as much fuel available in space as possible.

  5. Cool by hey! · · Score: 1

    They brought Patrick Moore back from the dead to narrate.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  6. That was cool AF by Beeftopia · · Score: 2

    Thanks Slashdot. Amazing.

  7. FYI by KeensMustard · · Score: 2

    If anybody wants to watch 7:13 ET is apparently 23:13 (UTC) so adjust for your own time zone... aaand you've missed it.

  8. Re:TRUMP!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump is trying to escape via ROCKET? That explains the diapers in the golf shorts.. But where is he going to go? There aren't any Russian chicks on Mars yet.

  9. Publish your spec, and get cracking. by segin · · Score: 1

    The processes that drive developers to your pet project haven't changed any. Go and publish your langauge spec, and get cracking on your parser.

    If your design is actually good, people will work on it. Nobody gives a shit what you feel - your feelings can go get fucked. Developers care about what actually is good, not what someone feels is good.

    1. Re:Publish your spec, and get cracking. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong article. It's one more down, dumbass.

  10. Competition is good, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The companies involved have grown huge on the government tit. As the last yet unmerged defense contractors, you would think they would be have healthy competition among themselves. Instead they piece together these joint socialist feedings as they can't survive otherwise. The only thing they innovate in now is fleecing the public.

    They are filled with mediocre talent and don't reward their engineers nor empower them anywhere near the 'scrappy' new competition. What good engineers exist are pushed down and buried.

    Maybe they will stumble back to relevance, but more than likely they will fight by lobbyist and will just keep merging into even more ridiculous blobs of management suffocating what little innovation accidentally falls out.

    1. Re:Competition is good, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why I quit the industry....impossible to get anything done. The majority of the job is just fighting to try to do anything. It's sad, but I really hope spacex squashes them but unlikely, too political.

  11. Livestream the landing by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wake me up when they livestream the landing

  12. "at 7:13 p.m. ET" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And, of course it was posted after that.

  13. Re:TRUMP!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Loser.

  14. Let's put this in perspective by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    Atlas V thrust (2018): 3,827 kN
    Saturn V thrust (1967): 35,100 kN

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    1. Re:Let's put this in perspective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Therefore everything should be launched with more power than is necessary.

    2. Re:Let's put this in perspective by Brett+Buck · · Score: 1

      And your point would be what, exactly? To launch a payload that can go on a moderately-sized rocket on the most capable rocket ever made, just to you would find it more "cool", for some reason?

              The interesting and important end of the rocket is in the nose, not the tail.

    3. Re:Let's put this in perspective by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's around 12 MN for the 551 version.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    4. Re:Let's put this in perspective by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      That's getting up there.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    5. Re:Let's put this in perspective by Rei · · Score: 0

      What the heck is wrong with commenters on this Slashdot article? It's like people are just searching for some reason to dig into other commenters.

      Tough Love said nothing about "this should have been launched on a Saturn V". They were pointing out that is impressive as this rocket may be, it's nothing compared to what the US was achieving in the 1960s.

      Please try to learn not to interpret reflective comments as demands.

      --
      I will pull over this spaceship right now!
  15. Real Competition=good. This is attempted Marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Real Competition=good. This is attempted Marketing.
    I've worked besides some really smart Boeing Space people. But they don't have the same drive that SpaceX does.

    Hopefully, Boeing can get some drive and earn some headlines with deeds, not hype.

    Suborbital passenger delivery anywhere in the world for 150+ people would be cool, if they can make it cost effective. 90 min to Tokyo sure would be nice, rather than 14+ hrs.

  16. Re:TRUMP!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Venus, everybody knows the hot chicks are on all Venus

  17. We were there by SigNuZX728 · · Score: 1

    My wife and I were there and got to watch from the beach where they were filming shortly after liftoff. It was cool. You should go see one sometime.

  18. Re: Real Competition=good. This is attempted Marke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, no shit. And how is it we are graced with a definition of âoeULAâ but then get thrown a reference to "Gunter's Space Blog" as if we ducking know what that is??

  19. Re: TRUMP!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When you're an earthman they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the multi-orificed ovipositor.

  20. yaw maneuver at +0:08 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watching on the replay, what was the rocket doing between 7 and 10 seconds after ignition? it seemed to yaw quite a bit to the left before correcting, but there wasn't any comment on this in the commentary. Any idea why it did that?

  21. Thanks ULA Love watching launches by n2hightech · · Score: 2

    This is great! I wish all launches were live streemed. I am still amazed that many people are fixated on minimizing rocket fuel cost. The move to purchase an air breathing engine for rockets is going to turn out to be a big financial mistake. It is fool hardy to think you can put an O2 liqifacation plant on a rocket. The physics are way way harder than landing a rocket vertically. And talk about carrying useless mass around... condensing coils, wings, full surface heat shielding for wings not only the inefficiency of trying to push that thing through the air at supersonic speeds. Blue Horizon and SpaceX have the low cost high performance idea down. For those who bad mouth using a giant rocket to deliver a small satalite package I say how big is the truck that delivers fedx packages? When all you need to add is fule the size of the truck does not matter much.

    1. Re:Thanks ULA Love watching launches by sjames · · Score: 1

      The monetary cost of the oxidizer is not the issue. If it was, the launch company would just build their own land based plant to liquify oxygen.

      The issue is that the LOX and associated insulated tank and vent system is heavy. They'd like to replace that weight with payload that they'll get paid for. A close second is that holding all that LOX in close proximity to all that fuel is dangerous.

    2. Re:Thanks ULA Love watching launches by Rei · · Score: 1

      The GP never said nor implied that the cost of LOX is the issue (they argued just the opposite). Their main point was that putting the mass of a O2 liquefaction plant on a rocket, so large that it can liquefy a whole first stage's worth of oxygen in a matter of minutes - and having that be mass that you then have to land if you want the vehicle to be reusable - is not a reasonable approach. They're probably right.

      --
      I will pull over this spaceship right now!
    3. Re:Thanks ULA Love watching launches by sjames · · Score: 1

      OP said

      I am still amazed that many people are fixated on minimizing rocket fuel cost.

      The rest was just an odd speculation about a "solution" that nobody is considering. Air breathing first stages have NEVER included an oxygen liquification mechanism. They operate more akin to a jet. Or, in cases like Space Ship One, the first stage IS a jet. The cost of fuel/oxidizer had nothing to do with that decision.

  22. Re:Real Competition=good. This is attempted Market by Rei · · Score: 1

    The suborbital travel doesn't even need to be net profitable on its own - it only needs a positive margin. Only "suborbital travel plus Mars tickets" needs to be net profitable. SpaceX added in suborbital travel because they were otherwise going to have these big expensive pieces of hardware just sitting around between launch windows. Might as well use them to bring in additional revenue during that time.

    --
    I will pull over this spaceship right now!