Posted: Thu, Dec 5, 2002, 9:21 AM ET (1421 GMT)
The final Atlas 2A rocket successfully launched the last in the current series of NASA communications satellites Wednesday night. The Lockheed Martin Atlas 2A lifted off on schedule at 9:42 pm EST Wednesday (0242 GMT Thursday) from pad 36A at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It released the Boeing-built Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-J (TDRS-J) spacecraft into a geosynchronous transfer orbit about 30 minutes later. The spacecraft is the last of three next-generation satellites that NASA will use to communicate with space shuttles, ISS, the Hubble Space Telescope, and other Earth-orbiting spacecraft. The new TDRS spacecraft are expected to operate through at least 2012. The launch was the last for the Atlas 2A booster, introduced in June 1992; all 23 of its flights were successful. The Atlas 2AS, the version of the Atlas 2A with four strap-on boosters, has five more missions left before it is retired in favor of the Atlas 3 and 5, according to Spaceflight Now.

Related Links:

•  ILS press release
•  Boeing press release
•  Spaceflight Now article
•  SPACE.com article
•  Florida Today article