Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launch brought the fireworks to gloomy gray skies over the Space Coast Friday ahead of the Fourth of July weekend.
Friday's launch saw the 196-foot tall ULA Atlas V rocket vault from its Cape Canaveral Space Force Station launch pad at 7:15 p.m. It came after a scrubbed attempt on Thursday evening that was called off due to bad weather over the spaceport.
The mission, called USSF-12, marked the second launch of the week from the Space Coast.
Packed in the rocket's nose cone was the Wide Field of View (WFOV) Testbed missile early warning satellite for the U.S. Space Force and the USSF-12 Ring spacecraft for the Department of Defense.
Just two days prior, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket at 5:04 p.m. Wednesday evening delivering the SES-22 communications satellite to orbit for the Luxembourg-based satellite operator, SES.
The Falcon 9 would later land on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean to be delivered back to Port Canaveral a few days later.
Like Thursday's launch attempt ULA encountered a few weather delays on Friday as well.
The liftoff was delayed by an hour and 15 minutes as teams had to wait for some winds high in the atmosphere to calm and a pesky anvil cloud that hung over the spaceport to clear.
The rocket featured four solid rocket boosters which created a fantastic contrail visible to spectators against the cloudy sky Friday evening.
ULA stated that it would take about six hours after liftoff for the rocket's upper stage to arrive at its intended delivery location and deploy the payloads.
Credit: news.yahoo.com
Website: Blog | brahmastraspace