spacetoday.net: Titan 4 launches Milsat

Posted: Wed, Apr 9, 2003, 8:27 AM ET (1227 GMT)
Titan 4B launch of Milstar 6 (Lockheed Martin)

A Titan 4B successfully launched the last in a series of Milstar military communications satellites on Tuesday. The Titan 4B lifted off from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:43 am EDT (1343 GMT), at the beginning of a four-hour launch window. Its payload, the Milstar 6 communications satellite, was placed into geostationary orbit six and a half hours later by the Titan's Centaur upper stage. The satellite is the sixth and last of the Milstar series of large communications satellites; this spacecraft will enter service in about 60 days after undergoing on-orbit tests. The launch had been scheduled for Sunday but was delayed by a variety of vehicle and range issues. Four more Titan 4B launches are scheduled through February 2005, when the heavy-lift vehicle will be retired in favor of the new Delta 4 Heavy vehicle, whose first flight is scheduled for September.