Atlas 3B maiden flight a success
Posted: Thu, Feb 21, 2002, 11:04 AM ET (1604 GMT)
Lockheed Martin's Atlas 3B booster successfully carried out its maiden flight Thursday morning, launching a direct broadcasting satellite for EchoStar. The rocket lifted off from Pad 36B at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 7:43 am EST (1243 GMT), 30 minutes later than planned because of two minor technical problems. The booster's payload, the EchoStar 7 satellite, separated from the Centaur upper stage 28 minutes after liftoff, after being placed into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. EchoStar 7, a Lockheed Martin A2100 AX spacecraft, will take over for the existing EchoStar 4 satellite and provide local television programming for customers in Alaska and Hawaii. The launch was the second for the Atlas 3 family, after the May 2000 launch of an Atlas 3A. The Atlas 3B is similar to the 3A but uses a stretched Centaur upper stage with two engines for improved performance.
Lockheed Martin's Atlas 3B booster successfully carried out its maiden flight Thursday morning, launching a direct broadcasting satellite for EchoStar. The rocket lifted off from Pad 36B at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 7:43 am EST (1243 GMT), 30 minutes later than planned because of two minor technical problems. The booster's payload, the EchoStar 7 satellite, separated from the Centaur upper stage 28 minutes after liftoff, after being placed into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. EchoStar 7, a Lockheed Martin A2100 AX spacecraft, will take over for the existing EchoStar 4 satellite and provide local television programming for customers in Alaska and Hawaii. The launch was the second for the Atlas 3 family, after the May 2000 launch of an Atlas 3A. The Atlas 3B is similar to the 3A but uses a stretched Centaur upper stage with two engines for improved performance.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Friday, April 18
NSF-Funded Research Heads to the International Space Station on NASA’s SpaceX CRS-32 Mission
CASIS — 7:44 am ET (1144 GMT) Manufacturing Nanomaterials in Space to Treat Disease on Earth
CASIS — 7:44 am ET (1144 GMT) Research finds evidence of a carbon cycle that operated on ancient Mars
Univ. of Calgary — 7:44 am ET (1144 GMT) SwRI-led PUNCH mission instruments collect first images
SwRI — 7:42 am ET (1142 GMT) NRL’s Narrow Field Imager Captures First Light
NRL — 7:41 am ET (1141 GMT) |
