The second shuttle mission of the small X-37B flight started from SLC-41 Air Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
postponed Friday night due to bad weather, was delayed for over an hour and a half because of a problem to a bleed valve of the launch tower, which is, however, was promptly replaced.
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| The launch [ULA]. |
The carrier Atlas 5 (in configuration 501) left then the pad at 2246 UTC and the first stage has been working for nearly five minutes, leaving the task to the second stage Centaur who performed the rest of the insertion orbit.
The mission was successful, although the telemetry data were blocked before reaching orbit due to the nature of this military mission. The United Launch Alliance, which has managed all phases of the launch, confirmed the completion of the mission successfully.
The X-37B party this evening is not the same specimen used in the last mission and this shows that the U.S. Air Force plans to build a small fleet of these Shuttle One.
present it's still in test conditions, in fact his name is Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-2), but the former has proved to be an extremely versatile vehicle. If we add that is reusable and the launch with a carrier, the Atlas, which has a highly reliable and relatively inexpensive, expect that to be unleashed among the various different orbits.
This launch was another success for the Atlas family of carriers and has been the launch issue:
- 606 for the Atlas program since 1957
- 319 for Atlas from Cape Canaveral
- 24 of an Atlas 5 from 2002
- 20 an Atlas 5 from Cape Canaveral
- 16 of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5
- 3 of an Atlas 5, which flew in configuration 501
- 11 of an Atlas 5 for the Department of Defense
was also the first of an Atlas in 2011.
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