spacetoday.net: Atlas launches military weather satellite

Posted: Fri, Apr 4, 2014, 9:28 AM ET (1328 GMT)
Atlas 5 launch of DMSP-19 (ULA)

An Atlas 5 rocket successfully launched Thursday a military weather satellite that had been in storage for 15 years. The Atlas 5 401 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 10:46 am EDT (1446 GMT) and released the DMSP-19 into polar orbit 18 minutes later. The satellite, part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and formally known as DMSP-5D3 F-19, was built in the 1990s and placed in storage about 15 years ago because other satellites in the DMSP system were lasting longer than originally projected. The successful launch clears the way for another Atlas 5 launch, of the NROL-67 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, now scheduled for April 10. That launch was planned for last month but postponed because of the failure of a tracking radar at Cape Canaveral.