A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket is in final preparations to
launch the Landsat 9 mission for NASA. The launch is on track for Sept. 27
from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Launch is
planned for 11:12 a.m. PDT. The live launch broadcast begins at 10:30 a.m.
PDT on Sept. 27 at www.ulalaunch.com.
“We are proud to continue to serve as the primary launch provider for
Landsat missions. ULA and our heritage launch vehicles have launched every
successful Landsat mission since 1972,” said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president
of Government and Commercial Programs. “The Landsat series provides
outstanding data for Earth environment and science-based research and
Landsat 9 will add to these capabilities. We have worked alongside our
partners, in a challenging health environment, to prepare to launch this
important mission that will empower Earth research from space for decades to
come.”
Landsat 9 is a joint mission of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
In addition to Landsat 9, this mission includes the ESPA Flight System (EFS)
which will deploy multiple CubeSats after Landsat 9 separation. The Atlas V
will deploy Landsat 9 and the CubeSats into two different orbits, enabling
the first four-burn Centaur mission for ULA on an Atlas V rocket. The
Centaur upper stage has the capacity for increased performance, and the
flight design of the Landsat 9 mission takes advantage of that capability.
The mission will launch on an Atlas V 401 configuration rocket, that
includes a 13.7-ft (4-m) Extra Extended Payload Fairing (XEPF) and stands
194 ft. (59 meters) tall. The Atlas booster for this mission is powered by
the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine. Aerojet Rocketdyne provided the RL10C-1 engine
for the Centaur upper stage.
This will be the 88th launch of the Atlas V rocket and 20th mission launched
on an Atlas V in partnership with NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP). This
launch is the 300th Atlas launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base. To date
ULA has launched 144 times with 100 percent mission success.
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Space & Astrophysics