Launch News MUOS-1 atop Atlas V, February 24th, 2012

[MaverickSawyer]

MECO-1!

 

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collectSPACE: Landmark launch: Atlas V rocket flies with heaviest payload atop 200th Centaur

CBS News Space:

• Atlas 5 rocket boosts military comsat into space
• Atlas 5 boosts military comsat into space (later version)

SPACE.com:

• US Navy Launches Next-Generation Military Satellite
• Amazing Launch Photos: Blastoff for Navy's Next-Gen MUOS-1 Satellite

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

And the third burn of the Centaur and spacecraft separation were performed as planned!

(all photos by Pat Corkery / United Launch Alliance and Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now)

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Rocketcam!

 

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Spaceflight Now: U.S. Navy's newly launched spacecraft is flying high:

The U.S. Navy's new satellite to provide more agile communications for forces on the move has successfully maneuvered itself into a perch 22,300 miles above Earth and unfurled its giant umbrella-like mesh antennas.

{...} Mobile User Objective System 1 satellite has executed eight firings of its liquid apogee main engine to ascend from that dropoff point. The rocket delivered the craft to a preliminary 2,150 by 22,237 statute mile orbit, which has now been circularized, and the inclination was reduced from 19 degrees to about 5 degrees relative to the equator.

Deployment of the craft's power-generating solar arrays has occurred, now spanning more than 90 feet, and the pair of antenna reflectors on boom assemblies took place as planned.

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Spaceflight Now: Military communications satellites go into service:

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The Navy announced Nov. 21 that MUOS 1 has been accepted for operational use, completing its post-launch maneuvering, testing and checkout process.

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