by Shahid Hussain
After waiting out cloudy weather, the U.S. Space Force launched two satellites atop an Atlas 5 rocket Friday to test ballistic and hypersonic missile early warning and tracking technology and to deploy a maneuverable spacecraft carrying an unknown number of classified payloads.
Already running a day late because of stormy weather, the $1.1 billion USSF-12 mission got off to a ground-shaking start at 7:15 p.m. EDT when its United Launch Alliance rocket thundered to life with 2.3 million pounds of thrust from its first stage engine and four strap-on boosters.
Trailing a spectacular jet of flaming exhaust, the 196-foot-tall rocket rapidly climbed from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, knifing through low clouds and quickly disappearing from view as it streaked away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean.
Eleven minutes later, the Aerojet Rocketdyne engine powering the rocket’s second stage completed the first of three planned firings designed to put the two satellites in a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator. The trip was expected to take about six hours, ending early Saturday with the satellites’ deployment from the Centaur second stage.
