ULA Atlas V launch pushed back to Saturday

Delayed by a day due to a fuel leak spotted on Thusday an Atlas V rocket blasted off smoothly from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Saturday afternoon, sending an Air Force navigation satellite into space.

The mission’s first launch attempt had been planned for 12:17 p.m. Friday.

It underwent final encapsulation inside its four-metre diameter protective payload fairing on October 21 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron anticipates a 90 percent chance of favorable weather during Friday’s 19-minute launch window.

Launch of Atlas V rocket carrying Global Positioning System IIF-11 satellite. The improved navigational capacity comes from advanced atomic clocks in the system and a longer design life. “ULA and NASA have collaborated on 11 highly successful Atlas V launches and we look forward to applying a one-launch-at-time focus on mission success to the TDRS-M mission”. “We have successfully placed into operation 10 in a series of 12 procured Boeing-built space vehicles, and thanks to the exceptional team of government, industry and launch personnel we are poised to launch the 11th Global Positioning System IIF satellite aboard an Atlas V 401 launch vehicle later this week”, he said.

The incident thwarted plans to show live video of the launch during a GPS system update at the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board in Boulder, Colorado.

SMC, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, Calif., is the U.S. Air Force’s center of acquisition excellence for acquiring and developing Military space systems.

This is the last launch scheduled at the cape until December 3, when Orbital ATK will resume its resupply missions to the worldwide Space Station, following a 14-month grounding.