NROL-36 (NOSS-3 6A, 6B),11 ИСЗ - Atlas V 401 - Vandenberg SLC-3E - 13.09.2012 21:39 UTC

[instml]

14 сентября - NRO L-36(NOSS-3 6A,NOSS-3 6B), Aeneas, SMDC-ONE 2.1 (Able), SMDC-ONE 2.2 (Baker), Re, CINEMA 1, CSSWE, CXBN, AeroCube 4A, AeroCube 4B, AeroCube 4C, CP 5 - Atlas V 401 - Ванденберг SLC-3E - 01:39 ЛМВ

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28638.0

[G.K.]

Бычки набирают популярность  :roll:

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28638.msg888822#msg888822

Looks like an Atlas, and a Centaur are being airlifted to Vandenberg ( http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2012/04/volga-dnepr-airlines-asks-for.html ). Is NROL-36's ride already on site, or is it likely these flights?

I wonder if it is fallout from the Delta Mariner bridge indecent earlier in the year.

[G.K.]

и снова гаечный ключ

[instml]

http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=955801#955801

Представитель United Launch Alliance обрисовал широчайший спектр возможностей по попутному выводу нагрузок на РН "Атлас" и "Дельта". В простейшем варианте это Aft Bulkhead Carrier (ABC) - 80 кг контейнер, прикрученный к нижнему днищу "Центавра", который ULA готова доставить хоть в точку Лагранжа. Первое испытание ABC состоится в августе сего года, когда в рамках пуска NROL-36 будет выведен микроспутник OUTSat. Есть приспособления и для более  крупнотоннажных грузов: схемы, а также расписание "попуток" см в презентации. Похоже ULA решила всерьез закрепиться на этом рынке.


Схема крепления ABC и радостные создатели OUTSat вместе со своим спутником.

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av033/preview.html

Atlas 5 set for late-night launch from California[/size]
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: July 29, 2012

Ready to take a classified national security payload and a batch of hitchhiking cubesats into space early Thursday from California, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is in the final days of preparations for blastoff.

The middle-of-the-night launch will occur some time between 12 midnight and 1:30 a.m. local (3:00-4:30 a.m. EDT; 0700-0830 GMT). The actual target liftoff time has not yet been revealed.

(NOTE: On Monday, a liftoff time of 12:40 a.m. local was announced. See our Mission Status Center for the latest)

    
File image of an Atlas 5 rocket at VAFB. Credit: Pat Corkery/ULA
 
The mission will originate from Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex 3-East, a "classic pad" with a retractable service gantry and fixed umbilical tower. It stands in contrast to the Atlas 5's launch site at Cape Canaveral that assembles its rockets in an adjacent building and rolls the vehicles out to the spartan pad on a mobile platform.

This will be the fifth Atlas 5 to fly from the West Coast, each occurring successfully in the past four years with a trio of missions for the country's spy satellite agency and one with a U.S. military weather observatory.

Thursday's trip to space will deploy another cargo for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the secretive government organization responsible for designing and operating the intelligence-gathering surveillance spacecraft for policy makers and military forces.

All details about the payload nestled inside the Atlas rocket's nose cone are kept classified. The agency will say only that the launch is known as NROL-36.

"Any NRO launch is critical to national security, delivering new intel capabilities out to the warfighters," said Lt. Col. Dan Gillen, commander of the 4th Space Launch Squadron that oversees Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rocket operations at Vandenberg. "Even though we are winding down some operations Afghanistan and Iraq, the need for intel is still growing."

Once the primary payload is delivered into its hush-hush orbital destination, the Centaur upper stage will maneuver to a different altitude where 11 miniature satellites built by universities, the military and a national lab will be ejected from 8 deployers all packed into one box-like container. That structure is attached to a bracket on the aft-end of the stage next to the RL10 engine where a helium bottle previously resided.


An illustration of an Atlas 5 rocket and the secondary payload attach location on the Centaur. Credit: NRO
 
Available performance on this mission made it suitable to fly the secondary cubesats and deliver them into a useful orbit.

Four are flying through NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellite program that works with schools to give students real-life experience in the space business. Institutions launching their scientifically-meaningful hardware on this rocket via ELANA are the University of California, University of Colorado at Boulder, California Polytechnic State University and Morehead State.

In addition, the NRO's Mission Support Directorate is enabling 7 satellites to fly from the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Aerospace Corp., the University of Southern California and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Objectives of the various spacecraft range from testing future satellite technologies, probing space weather and observing the cosmic X-ray background.

The launch campaign began when the Atlas first stage and Centaur arrived at Vandenberg in April from ULA's production factory in Alabama.

This is the most-basic version of Atlas 5, known as the 401 configuration with a four-meter-diameter payload shroud, no strap-on solid-fuel motors and a single-engine Centaur.

Stacking of the vehicle occurred in May as the bronze first stage, equipped with its kerosene-fed RD-180 main engine, was brought to SLC 3, rotated vertical and set onto the pad. Then the cryogenic Centaur got hoisted into position.

Garrett Skrobot, a NASA manager on the ELANA project, said the cubesats were attached to the Centaur while the rocket was still horizontal in the hangar.

    
Payload hoisted into atop the Atlas 5 in July. Credit: ULA
 
The primary payload was readied for flight elsewhere on base and encapsulated in the nose cone before riding a special transport trailer to the pad to join up with its launcher on July 17.

"These activities we've been planning and prepping for years in advance starting back at the factory. This hardware has been performing remarkably well," Gillen said.

See a photo gallery of the payload going to the pad.

Thursday's launch date has held steady on the calendar with no recent delays for this the Atlas 5 rocket's 32nd flight in the past decade.

"With every mission, we are always anticipating a lot of spectators because it's always a very exciting event," Gillen said. "I know because of the importance of this launch that there's a ton of invites out and I imagine that there will be many VIPs."

The final launch readiness reviews will be held Tuesday to give approval for starting the countdown operations Wednesday afternoon. Retraction of the gantry to unveil the 19-story rocket occurs about four hours before liftoff time and fueling commences about two hours later.

"Things are actually looking really good. We are on track. We are where we would hope to be, where we would expect to be at this point," Gillen said in an interview Friday.

It will be the fourth of four launches for the NRO in 2012. A Delta 4 put a radar-imaging satellite into a retrograde orbit from Vandenberg in April, an Atlas 5 carried a geosynchronous data-relay bird in June from Cape Canaveral, followed by a Delta 4-Heavy with a clandestine cargo also flown from the Cape in late June.


The logo for this NROL-36 mission. Credit: NRO
 
As for the Atlas 5 program, the rocket will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its maiden mission on August 21, the same day as rollout at the Cape for launching NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes on August 23 at 4:08 a.m. EDT.

Also coming up later this year is the Oct. 26 deployment of the Pentagon's X-37B orbital spaceplane on its third voyage and launch of NASA's next Tracking and Data Relay Satellite on Dec. 6.

Vandenberg will host launches of the next Landsat Earth-resources spacecraft in February and the commercial GeoEye 2 Earth-imaging satellite in April.

Gillen's squadron at Vandenberg also has a much-anticipated Delta 4-Heavy rocket launch for the NRO slated for next August.

"I'm anticipating a really good ops tempo and expect Team Vandenberg to stay very busy over the next year," he said. Hardware for all three of those 2013 missions will soon begin arriving at the base for processing.

About the author

Justin Ray has been editor of Spaceflight Now since its inception in November 1999. The online website, based at Cape Canaveral, has documented U.S. and international space news with a specialty of live launch coverage.

Prior to that, Justin worked for two years as an aerospace reporter at the Florida Today newspaper and its pioneering Space Online website. He began his career as an intern at Patrick Air Force Base's public affairs office in 1996 and wrote for the Missileer base newspaper.

The Ohio native has covered more than 115 Delta rocket launches, 85 Atlas flights, 65 space shuttle missions and construction of the International Space Station, plus scientific spacecraft such as the Mars rovers and Cassini.

He attended college at the University of Central Florida and now resides in Viera, Florida. [/size]

[Salo]

August 2 - NRO L-36(NOSS-3 6A,NOSS-3 6B)/Aeneas/SMDC-ONE 2.1 (Able)/SMDC-ONE 2.2 (Baker)/Re/CINEMA 1/CSSWE/CXBN/AeroCube 4A/AeroCube 4B/AeroCube 4C/CP 5 - Atlas V 401 - Vandenberg SLC-3E - 07:00-08:30 UTC

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av033/hoisting/

Payload hoisted atop Atlas for NROL-36[/size]
BY JUSTIN RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: July 26, 2012

A classified satellite payload already encapsulated in a four-meter-diameter nose cone is delivered to Space Launch Complex 3-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base and hoisted into the pad's mobile gantry for attachment atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

The bullet-shaped shroud protects the satellite during ascent through Earth's atmosphere and then gets jettisoned to uncover the craft after the threshold the space is reached.

The operation occurred July 17 in preparation for blastoff August 2. The payload is known only as NROL-36 for the National Reconnaissance Office.

See our Mission Status Center for the latest news on the launch.

Photo credit: United Launch Alliance[/size]

[Старый]

На эмблеме три точки. Три крайних НОССа относятся к следующему поколению? Хорошот соответствует идее что в одном поколении 4 штуки.

[Salo]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av033/status.html

MONDAY, JULY 30, 2012
It's a foggy forecast for the Atlas 5 rocket's Thursday launch opportunity, Air Force meteorologists are projecting, but those conditions won't interfere with the planned 12:40 a.m. local time liftoff.

Vandenberg's trademark marine layer is expected to be in place throughout the launch countdown. There is just a slight 10 percent chance for cumulus clouds from weather to the east that could violate any of the launch weather rules.

At launch time, the outlook calls for overcast stratus clouds at 200 feet with tops at 1,200 feet, some thin high cirrus clouds at 25,000 feet, only a half-mile of visibility with fog, northwesterly winds of 10 to 15 knots and a temperature in the mid 50s F.

If the launch should slip to Friday for some reason, similar weather is expected again.


9:45 a.m. local (12:45 p.m. EDT; 1645 GMT)
The target launch time for Thursday's Atlas 5 rocket has been announced to the public. Liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base is scheduled for 12:40 a.m. local (3:40 a.m. EDT; 0740 GMT).

The exact duration of the daily launch window hasn't been disclosed. But officials previously said the liftoff would not occur after 1:30 a.m. local.


SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012
Ready to take a classified national security payload and a batch of hitchhiking cubesats into space early Thursday from California, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is in the final days of preparations for blastoff.

The middle-of-the-night launch will occur some time between 12 midnight and 1:30 a.m. local (3:00-4:30 a.m. EDT; 0700-0830 GMT). The actual target liftoff time has not yet been revealed.

[dmdimon]

UNITED STATES MILITARY MANIFEST (31 Jul 2012)
http://www.sworld.com.au/steven/space/usmil-man.txt

[G.K.]

Интересно, история с FASTSATом повторится?

[instml]

2 августа - NRO L-36(NOSS-3 6A,NOSS-3 6B), Aeneas, SMDC-ONE 2.1 (Able), SMDC-ONE 2.2 (Baker), Re, CINEMA 1, CSSWE, CXBN, AeroCube 4A, AeroCube 4B, AeroCube 4C, CP 5 - Atlas V 401 - Ванденберг SLC-3E - 11:40-12:30 ЛМВ

[Space Alien]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av033/status.html

10:00 p.m. local (1:00 a.m. EDT; 0400 GMT)
T-minus 2 hours and holding. The countdown has just entered the first of the planned holds over the course of the evening that will lead to the 12:40 a.m. PDT (3:40 a.m. EDT) launch of the Atlas-Centaur rocket.
This initial pause lasts 30 minutes, giving the team some margin in the countdown timeline to deal with technical issues or any work that is running behind. The final hold is scheduled to occur at T-minus 4 minutes.

Workers have left the pad area in advance of tonight's propellant loading and launch of the Atlas 5 rocket.

9:56 p.m. local (12:56 a.m. EDT; 0456 GMT)
With all the hands-on work now finished at the pad, technicians are clearing Space Launch Complex 3 for the remainder of the countdown.
9:48 p.m. local (12:48 a.m. EDT; 0448 GMT)
That earlier issue has been resolved with no impact to today's launch operations. Activities continue to press ahead for the 12:40 a.m. PDT liftoff.
9:41 p.m. local (12:41 a.m. EDT; 0441 GMT)
Testing of the vehicle's guidance system is complete.
9:35 p.m. local (12:35 a.m. EDT; 0435 GMT)
The team is talking about a technical issue and how to resolve it, but the countdown is proceeding to tick.
9:17 p.m. local (12:17 a.m. EDT; 0417 GMT)
At this point in tonight's countdown, final preps for the Centaur's liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen systems are underway.
9:01 p.m. local (12:01 a.m. EDT; 0401 GMT)
Completed in the countdown over the past few minutes, engineers conducted checks of the vehicle's internal batteries and finished final preps to the Atlas pneumatics, hydraulics and propulsion systems.
8:56 p.m. local (11:56 p.m. EDT; 0356 GMT)
The pad crew reports the gantry is parked, closed up and ready for launch.
8:40 p.m. local (11:40 p.m. EDT; 0340 GMT)
The mobile service tower is being secured in its launch position. The ground crew will get its doors closed, plus finish the final buttoning up of pad equipment over the next half-hour before all workers clear the pad for the remainder of the countdown.
Today's launch will be the fifth Atlas 5 rocket to fly from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 3-East pad. The site underwent an extensive overhaul, with construction occurring in 2004 and 2005, to accommodate the larger and more powerful Atlas 5 family of rockets. Some of the major modifications included:

30-foot extension to mobile service tower
20-foot exhaust duct depth increase
250-ton Fixed Launch Platform installed
Significant ambient and cryogenic fluid ground system modifications
Complete replacement of the Ground Command/Control/Communication system
New and refurbished Launch Control/Mission Support Centers
This is the 38th Atlas to fly from SLC 3 throughout Vandenberg history.

8:25 p.m. local (11:25 p.m. EDT; 0325 GMT)
Standard countdown tests are getting started on the C-band system used to track the rocket as it flies downrange and the S-band system used for telemetry relay from vehicle.
8:10 p.m. local (11:10 p.m. EDT; 0310 GMT)
Now 4 hours, 30 minutes from blastoff.
Today's mission will deliver to orbit a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that operates the country's fleet of spy satellites. This is the fourth of four launches that the NRO has planned this year, a batch of missions that began in April with the Delta 4 from Vandenberg Air Force Base and continued with an Atlas 5 and a Delta 4-Heavy, both in June from Cape Canaveral.

"Last year we executed the most aggressive launch campaign in over 25 years. We successfully launched six satellites in seven months and this year with the same determination we're scheduled to launch four more in five months," Betty Sapp, now the NRO's director, said in testimony before Congress this spring.

"These successful launches are a very important and visible reminder of the space reconnaissance mission the NRO started over 50 years ago, and continues with such great success today. We are committed to smart acquisition investments and practices to ensure the continued coverage and availability of our vital national security systems and we work tirelessly to deliver these systems on time and within budget."

Last year's remarkable launch surge used various types of Atlas and Delta rockets to launch replacement satellites into virtually all of the NRO's networks of imaging, eavesdropping, surveillance and data-relay spacecraft, plus the small Minotaur booster lofted a research and development payload.

"From launching and operating the most technically-capable systems to continued operations of legacy satellites the NRO remains the premier space reconnaissance organization in the world," said Sapp.

8:05 p.m. local (11:05 p.m. EDT; 0305 GMT)
The tower is clear of the vehicle as it continues to slowly roll away. The structure's internal crane was instrumental in bringing the rocket stages and payload together. And now the fully assembled Atlas 5 has been unveiled for its 32nd launch, the fifth to originate from Vandenberg.
7:56 p.m. local (10:56 p.m. EDT; 0256 GMT)
GO FOR ROLL. At the Space Launch Complex 3 pad, the mobile service gantry has been configured for its retraction away from the Atlas 5 rocket this evening. Approval has been radioed to the team to wheel the 8-million-pound tower to its launch position a short distance from the 19-story-tall booster.
7:40 p.m. local (10:40 p.m. EDT; 0240 GMT)
Now entering the final five hours in this countdown to launch. Centaur's helium bottles have been charged. The flight control preps are complete and the operational test is underway.
And a reminder that if you will be away from your computer but would like to receive occasional countdown updates, sign up for our Twitter feed to get text message updates on your cellphone. U.S. readers can also sign up from their phone by texting "follow spaceflightnow" to 40404. (Standard text messaging charges apply.)

7:25 p.m. local (10:25 p.m. EDT; 0225 GMT)
Preparations for moving the mobile service tower are reported complete, and the pad crew has been given approval to start jacking up the gantry for retraction.
6:40 p.m. local (9:40 p.m. EDT; 0140 GMT)
Six hours from liftoff! Out at Space Launch Complex 3-East, the pad crew is working through its checklist to ready the mobile service tower for rollback later this evening. The gantry is the massive building on wheels that is used for assembling the rocket and payload, provides workers full access to the vehicle during the pre-flight campaign, then retracts a few hours before liftoff time to reveal the Atlas.
6:19 p.m. local (9:19 p.m. EDT; 0119 GMT)
The Atlas first stage and Centaur upper stage have been powered up as the early portion of the countdown activities rolls onward. Guidance system testing is about to begin next.
5:00 p.m. local (8:00 p.m. EDT; 0000 GMT)
COUNTDOWN UNDERWAY! Clocks have begun ticking for tonight's flight by the Atlas 5 rocket from America's western spaceport.
As the countdown gets started, the launch team will power up the rocket to conduct standard pre-flight tests and ready the vehicle for this national security satellite deployment mission.

Rollback of the mobile service tower from around the rocket is expected around 8:45 p.m. local. Once the gantry is removed, crews at the pad will make preparations to systems and equipment before the site is cleared of all personnel for fueling.

A planned 30-minute hold begins when the count reaches T-minus 120 minutes at 10 p.m. local time. With five minutes remaining in the hold, the team will be polled to verify all is in readiness to start loading propellant into the rocket for launch.

Supercold liquid oxygen begins flowing into the Centaur upper stage around 10:45 p.m. local, followed by the Atlas first stage. Liquid hydrogen fuel loading for Centaur will be completed a short time later.

A final hold is scheduled at 12:26 a.m. when clocks hit the T-minus 4 minute mark. That will give the team a chance to finish any late work and assess the status of the rocket, payload, Range and weather before proceeding into the last moments of the countdown.

Liftoff remains targeted for 12:40 a.m. local time (3:40 a.m. EDT; 0740 GMT).

9:45 a.m. local (12:45 p.m. EDT; 1645 GMT)
Launch day has arrived for the NROL-36 mission aboard an Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The countdown sequence begins a little less than 8 hours before tonight's 12:40 a.m. PDT launch and rollback of the mobile service tower begins about four hours ahead of liftoff. Watch this page for live updates throughout the evening!
The latest weather forecast is predicting even foggier conditions at launch time, with only a quarter-mile visibility, a solid marine layer at ground-level extending to 600 feet, some high cirrus clouds at 25,000 feet, northwesterly winds of 5 to 10 knots and temperatures in the low 50s F.

At this hour, photographers are out at the launch pad setting up their sound-activated cameras around the complex to capture blastoff, visibility permitting!

[Space Alien]

[Space Alien]

11:00 p.m. local (2:00 a.m. EDT; 0500 GMT)
Half of the Centaur liquid oxygen tank has been filled so far.
10:57 p.m. local (1:57 a.m. EDT; 0457 GMT)
To sync up with the new launch time, the built-in hold at T-minus 4 minutes will be extended an extra four minutes, leading to blastoff at the exact moment of 12:44:30 a.m. local.
10:54 p.m. local (1:54 a.m. EDT; 0454 GMT)
The Centaur liquid oxygen tank is nearing a quarter full already.
10:53 p.m. local (1:53 a.m. EDT; 0453 GMT)
NEW LAUNCH TIME. Tonight's liftoff time has been adjusted to 12:44:30 a.m. local (3:44:30 a.m. EDT; 0744:30 GMT).
10:45 p.m. local (1:45 a.m. EDT; 0445 GMT)
And now filling of the Centaur upper stage with about 4,300 gallons of liquid oxygen is beginning at Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 3 following the thermal conditioning of the transfer pipes.
The liquid oxygen -- chilled to Minus-298 degrees F -- will be consumed during the launch by the Centaur's single RL10 engine along with liquid hydrogen to be loaded into the stage a little later in the countdown.

10:44 p.m. local (1:44 a.m. EDT; 0444 GMT)
The conditioning of the systems for the first stage liquid oxygen tank have been completed. And a "go" has been given to begin flowing supercold liquid oxygen into the Atlas 5's first stage.
The Common Core Booster stage's liquid oxygen tank is the largest tank to be filled today. It holds about 50,000 gallons of cryogenic oxidizer for the RD-180 main engine.

10:38 p.m. local (1:38 a.m. EDT; 0438 GMT)
The Centaur liquid oxygen system's pad storage area has been prepped. The next step is conditioning the transfer lines, which is now beginning to prepare the plumbing for flowing the cryogenic oxidizer.
10:30:30 p.m. local (1:30:30 a.m. EDT; 0430:30 GMT)
T-minus 120 minutes and counting! The launch countdown has resumed for this evening's flight of the Atlas 5 rocket following the planned half-hour built-in hold.
Clocks have one more hold scheduled at T-minus 4 minutes. That pause will last 10 minutes during which time the final "go" for launch will be given.

All remains targeted for liftoff at the precise moment of 12:40 and 30 seconds a.m. local time (3:40:30 a.m. EDT; 0740:30 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

10:27 p.m. local (1:27 a.m. EDT; 0427 GMT)
The launch team and all systems are "ready" to proceed with the countdown and begin fueling the Atlas 5 rocket this evening as planned.
Loading of cryogenic liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen into the Atlas 5 rocket will be getting underway a short time from now.

10:25 p.m. local (1:25 a.m. EDT; 0425 GMT)
The Atlas launch conductor is briefing his team on procedures before entering into the final two hours of the countdown. A readiness check of the team members is next.
10:10 p.m. local (1:10 a.m. EDT; 0410 GMT)
A reminder that if you will be away from your computer but would like to receive occasional countdown updates, sign up for our Twitter feed to get text message updates on your cellphone. U.S. readers can also sign up from their phone by texting "follow spaceflightnow" to 40404. (Standard text messaging charges apply.)

[Space Alien]

11:50 p.m. local (2:50 a.m. EDT; 0550 GMT)
The liquid hydrogen tank in the Centaur upper stage just reached the 97 percent level. Topping is now beginning.
11:44 p.m. local (2:44 a.m. EDT; 0544 GMT)
Now 60 minutes from launch. All activities are proceeding smoothly toward a liftoff at 12:44:30 a.m. Pacific Time. The liftoff has been shifted by four minutes by a Collision Avoidance cutout, or COLA, to ensure the rocket is sent on a safe trajectory to orbit.
A reminder that if you will be away from your computer but would like to receive countdown updates, sign up for our Twitter feed to get text messages on your cellphone. U.S. readers can also sign up from their phone by texting "follow spaceflightnow" to 40404. (Standard text messaging charges apply.)

11:43 p.m. local (2:43 a.m. EDT; 0543 GMT)
Fast-filling of the first stage liquid oxygen has been completed at the tank's 97.5 percent mark. Topping mode is now underway.
11:42 p.m. local (2:42 a.m. EDT; 0542 GMT)
The Centaur liquid hydrogen tank is half-way loaded so far. The cryogenic propellant will be consumed with liquid oxygen by the stage's Pratt & Whitney-made RL10 engine.
11:35 p.m. local (2:35 a.m. EDT; 0535 GMT)
Now beyond the three-quarters level of liquid oxygen on the first stage.
11:30 p.m. local (2:30 a.m. EDT; 0530 GMT)
Chilldown of the liquid hydrogen system is now complete, allowing the super-cold rocket fuel to begin filling the Centaur upper stage.
11:23 p.m. local (2:23 a.m. EDT; 0523 GMT)
First stage liquid oxygen tank is passing the half-full mark. Chilled to Minus-298 degrees F, the liquid oxygen will be used with RP-1 kerosene by the RD-180 main engine on the first stage during the initial minutes of flight today. The 25,000 gallons of RP-1 were loaded into the rocket earlier.
11:21 p.m. local (2:21 a.m. EDT; 0521 GMT)
Centaur engine chilldown sequence is being initiated.
11:17 p.m. local (2:17 a.m. EDT; 0517 GMT)
Liquid oxygen on Centaur has reached flight level.
11:14:30 p.m. local (2:14:30 a.m. EDT; 0514:30 GMT)
Now 90 minutes from liftoff. There are no reports of technical troubles from the launch team and the weather is within limits for tonight's countdown. Fueling operations remain in work for the new launch time of 12:44:30 a.m. local.
11:12 p.m. local (2:12 a.m. EDT; 0512 GMT)
The Centaur liquid oxygen tank reached the 95 percent level and the topping off process is starting.
11:07 p.m. local (2:07 a.m. EDT; 0507 GMT)
The chilldown conditioning of liquid hydrogen propellant lines is starting to prepare the plumbing for transferring the Minus-423 degree F fuel into the rocket. The Centaur holds about 13,000 gallons of the cryogenic propellant.
11:06 p.m. local (2:06 a.m. EDT; 0506 GMT)
The first stage liquid oxygen loading is switching from slow-fill to fast-fill mode as planned.

[Space Alien]

Началась прямая трансляция

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av033/status.html

[Space Alien]

12:24 a.m. local (3:24 a.m. EDT; 0624 GMT)
Twenty minutes from liftoff now. The countdown clocks are heading to the T-minus 4 minute mark where a planned 14-minute hold will occur. Launch of Atlas 5 remains scheduled for 12:44:30 a.m. PDT.
12:16 a.m. local (3:16 a.m. EDT; 0616 GMT)
The workhorse Centaur upper stage has flown in various configurations for decades and will be making its 203rd mission with NROL-36. For this launch, the stage will use one Pratt & Whitney-built RL10A-4-2 liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engine that develops a thrust of about 22,300 pounds.
The stage is 41.5 feet in length and 10 feet it diameter. It also houses the navigation unit that serves as the rocket's guidance brain.

12:14 a.m. local (3:14 a.m. EDT; 0614 GMT)
The fuel-fill sequence for the first stage main engine is underway.
12:07 a.m. local (3:07 a.m. EDT; 0607 GMT)
The Atlas 5 rocket's rigid body first stage is known as the Common Core Booster. The CCB replaced the "balloon" pressure-stabilized stage used by previous Atlas vehicles.
It is equipped with the RD-180 liquid-fueled main engine. This liquid oxygen/kerosene powerplant is a two-thrust chamber, two-nozzle engine.

As the CCB's name suggests, the stage is common and is used in all the various configurations of the Atlas 5 family. The booster stage is 106.6 feet long and 12.5 feet diameter.

12:00 a.m. local (3:00 a.m. EDT; 0600 GMT)
Atlas 5 represents the culmination of evolution stretching back several decades to America's first intercontinental ballistic missile. At the dawn of the space age, boosters named Atlas launched men into orbit during Project Mercury and became a frequent vehicle of choice to haul civil, military and commercial spacecraft to orbit.
Topped with the high-energy Centaur upper stage, Atlas rockets have been used since the 1960s to dispatch ground-breaking missions for NASA, including the Surveyors to the Moon, Mariner flights to Mars, Venus and Mercury, and the Pioneers that were the first to visit Jupiter and beyond.

In its newest era, the Atlas 5 rocket sent the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to the red planet in 2005, propelled the New Horizons probe toward Pluto and the solar system's outer fringes in 2006, doubled up with the dual Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and LCROSS impactor to the Moon in 2009, hurled Juno to Jupiter last August and dispatched the car-sized Curiosity rover on the Mars Science Lab mission in November.

Today marks the 32nd flight for Atlas 5, born of the Air Force's competition to develop next-generation Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles. In its previous 31 missions since debuting in August 2002, the tally shows 10 flights dedicated to the Defense Department, 9 commercial missions with communications spacecraft, six with spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office and six for NASA.

[Apollo13]

12:31 a.m. local (3:31 a.m. EDT; 0631 GMT)
ULA says a mandatory Range asset is down. Work underway to resolve that issue.

что бы это значило?