Launch service contracts for two future NASA space exploration missions have been landed by United Launch Alliance. The missions will be Landsat and Juno, scheduled to launch in 2011. They’ll be lifted aloft via Atlas V rockets. The former will launch from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg AFB in California. The latter will launch form Cape Canaveral AFB’s SLC-41 in Florida. Under the terms of the contract, ULA is responsible for conducting vehicle integration and payload processing along with launch services.
The Atlas V uses a structurally stable Common Core Booster powered by the RD-180 engine. This engine can be throttled up or down as the flight requires. The booster has provisions for the addition of up to five strap-on solid rocket boosters (SRBs). The Centaur upper stage, powered by either single or dual RL10 engines, is used with all configurations. The vehicle can also be fitted with a smaller, 4-meter diameter payload fairing, or a larger 5-meter fairing in a range of heights.
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission, scheduled to fly aboard an Atlas V 401 configuration vehicle (4-meter fairing; no strap-on SRBs), is the future of Landsat satellites. It will continue scientists’ ability to obtain valuable data and imagery to be used in agriculture, education, business, science and government. The Landsat program provides repetitive acquisition of high-resolution multispectral data of the Earth’s surface on a global basis.
NASA’s Juno mission, scheduled to fly aboard an Atlas V 551 configuration vehicle, will explore Jupiter with the goal of understanding the planet’s origin and evolution. As the prototype of giant planets, Jupiter could provide the knowledge needed to understand the origin of our solar system and the planetary systems being discovered around other stars. The 551, the most powerful of the Atlas configurations with the 5-meter payload fairing and 5 strap-on solid rocket boosters, was the configuration that launched NASA’s Pluto New Horizons mission in 2006.
ULA’s next launch, currently scheduled for Oct. 10, will launch aboard an Atlas V 421 as it carries the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite for the U.S. Air Force from SLC-41 at CCAFS. The launch window is 8:22-9:33 p.m. EDT. United Launch Alliance is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin—Denver, Colorado
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