CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An Atlas V rocket blasted off from Florida's Space Coast on Tuesday, carrying a missile detection satellite for the U.S. Space Force.
What You Need To Know
- United Launch Alliance launched an Atlas V rocket at 1:37 p.m. ET
- The rocket is carrying a missile detection satellite for the U.S. Space Force
- RELATED: SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center
All systems are "go" here at the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center and at the Space Launch Complex-41 pad as we count down to today's #AtlasV launch of #SBIRSGEO5 at 1:31pmEDT (1731 UTC). Weather status also remains green. https://t.co/G1bRZZZ1gx pic.twitter.com/miQE7hYmmx
— ULA (@ulalaunch) May 18, 2021
“It tracks missiles and adds to our national security,” Chris Pettigrew of Lockheed Martin said.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V launched the four previous Lockheed Martin-built satellites, too. The orbiting network is known as "'the tip of the spear" from threats across the planet.
“In the last year alone, we detected 1,000 missile launches," Pettigrew said. "That's a pretty steep number. And that threat keeps going. It happens all over the world. You'd be surprised how much missile activity there is.”
Less than an hour after liftoff, the satellite was deployed to join the others in the orbital network.
Tuesday's launch marked the 16th Space Coast launch of 2021.
It followed a first-launch attempt Monday that Launch Director Steve Huff said was stopped because of a problem with the liquid oxygen supply system.
Tuesday's liftoff happened at 1:37 p.m. ET, delayed 6 minutes from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The launch marked the second liftoff from Florida in the span of a few days. Over the weekend, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, carrying another cluster of Starlink satellites.
The next scheduled launch is another SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink mission, set for May 26.