Solar Orbiter (SolO) – Atlas V 411 – Canaveral SLC-41 – 10.02.2020 – 07:05 ДМВ

[tnt22]

 Jared-Base - Solar Orbiter #NASASocial‏ @baserunner0723 59 мин. назад

We'll see how the cloud formation changes as the sun sets. Currently a fairly steady stream of small clouds moving west over the space center. Shouldn't impact the launch but will impact photos @ulalaunch @torybruno #SolarOrbiter

[tnt22]

Feb 10 00:00

Welcome to the Atlas/Solar Orbiter countdown!



From the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, this is Atlas Launch Control at T-minus 6 hours, 20 minutes and holding.

We are about to begin the countdown for the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to send Solar Orbiter, a mission by the European Space Agency with strong collaboration with NASA, to the polar regions of the sun.

Activities are on schedule for liftoff from Space Launch Complex-41 at 11:03 p.m. EST (0403 UTC). The launch window extends to 1:03 a.m. EST (0603 UTC), a duration of exactly two hours.

We will be starting the countdown at 4:13 p.m.

[tnt22]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/08/atlas-5-av087-mission-status-center/

02/09/2020 23:00 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance teams at Cape Canaveral are readying an Atlas 5 rocket for launch at 11:03 p.m. EST (0403 GMT) Thursday with the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft on a more than $1.5 billion mission developed in partnership with NASA.

Built by Airbus Defense and Space, the Solar Orbiter spacecraft is embarking on a seven-year primary mission -- the possibility of an extended mission phase -- to repeatedly fly closer to the sun than Mercury, sampling the solar wind and imaging the sun's poles fro the first time.

Teams at Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 launch pad loaded RP-1 kerosene fuel into the Atlas 5's first stage last month during a countdown dress rehearsal. Crews rolled the 189-foot-tall rocket back to pad 41 Saturday in preparation for today's launch countdown.

The first stage's Russian-built RD-180 engine will consume the kerosene in combination with super-cold liquid oxygen, which the launch team will load into the rocket in the final hours of the countdown Sunday night.

The Atlas 5's Centaur upper stage will also be filled with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen during the countdown.

Cryogenic tanking is scheduled to commence around 9 p.m. EST (0200 GMT).

[tnt22]

Feb 10 00:13
Countdown begins

T-minus 6 hours, 20 minutes (L-6 hours, 50 minutes) and counting!

The countdown has been initiated for liftoff of the 82nd Atlas V rocket and Solar Orbiter tonight from Cape Canaveral.

There are two pre-planned, built-in holds, each lasting 15 minutes, scheduled in the count. One pause is reserved prior to fueling at T-minus 2 hours, the other occurs prior to the terminal count at T-minus 4 minutes. That will lead us to a liftoff at 11:03 p.m. EST (0403 UTC).

The Atlas V rocket, designated AV-087, will launch Solar Orbiter on a hyperbolic departure trajectory that enables the spacecraft to perform close encounters with the sun every six months for the next decade to help answer fundamental questions about the activities and behavior of our life-sustaining star.

It will take less than an hour to perform this Atlas V mission, from liftoff until deployment of the spacecraft, and the Centaur upper stage will perform two burns for Solar Orbiter to achieve escape velocity. Tonight's launch will hit a max speed of 27,000 mph.

Our rocket variant being flown this evening is the Atlas V 411 configuration that is distinguished by the four-meter-wide composite payload fairing, a single solid rocket booster that is side-mounted to the first stage and one RL10A-4-2 engine on the Centaur upper stage. It stands 189 feet tall and will weigh 850,150 pounds once fully fueled.

[tnt22]

Feb 10 00:28

This is Atlas Launch Control at T-minus 6 hours, 5 minutes (L-6 hours, 35 minutes) and counting.

The application of power to the Atlas and Centaur stages is underway at the start of today's countdown procedures. The stages are being powered up to begin launch day testing and final preparations for fueling operations.

Over the next few hours, final preps for the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen systems will be performed, along with a test of the rocket's guidance system and the first stage propulsion and hydraulic preps, internal battery checks and testing of the GPS metric tracking system used to follow the rocket as it flies downrange, plus a test of the S-band telemetry relay system.

[tnt22]

Feb 10 00:48

Meet the sun

Our mission tonight launches Solar Orbiter to the sun for detailed research on how our star works and influences life on Earth through space weather. Learn some facts about the sun!


(From ESA press kit)

[tnt22]

Feb 10 00:54

Power applied

The Atlas-Centaur rocket has been powered up for its launch of Solar Orbiter.

The flight control operator in the Launch Control Center performed the power up. Soon, she will begin avionics testing while the rocket's Inertial Guidance and Control Assembly (INCA) flight computer is allowed to warm up. Later, the operator will conduct guidance system testing and steering checks of the engine nozzles prior to cryogenic fueling.

The countdown continues to track on schedule for liftoff at 11:03 p.m. EST (0403 UTC). At T-minus 5 hours 39 minutes (L-6 hours, 9 minutes) and counting, this is Atlas Launch Control.

[tnt22]

Feb 10 01:13

This is Atlas Launch Control at T-minus 5 hours, 20 minutes (L-5 hours, 50 minutes) and counting. We are tracking no issues in the countdown for a liftoff at 11:03 p.m. EST (0403 UTC).

Take a look at our Flickr gallery for photography of the Atlas V rocket being readied for the Solar Orbiter launch.

[tnt22]

02/10/2020 01:48 Spaceflight Now

The Atlas 5 launch team has received a weather briefing from the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Forecasters are now predicting a 90% chance of acceptable weather for tonight's launch. The primary concern for the Atlas 5's launch will be ground winds, which are forecast to be peaking at 26 knots during the launch window.

[tnt22]

Feb 10 01:49

Spacecraft's instruments

Solar Orbiter is equipped with a sophisticated suite of instruments to measure conditions around the spacecraft and observe the sun at a distance.


(From ESA press kit)

[tnt22]

Ох! Не сглазил бы...

 Tory Bruno‏ @torybruno 32 мин. назад

#SolarOrbiter is coming up on T-6hrs. Crew is on station. No major issues are being worked. A lovely evening to journey towards the sun.

[tnt22]

02/10/2020 02:15 Stephen Clark

[tnt22]

Feb 10 02:10

Photo by United Launch Alliance

The flight control operational test is getting underway. This test will validate the control functions on the Atlas first stage main engine and the Centaur upper stage's engine by confirming that valves cycle properly and that the engine steering systems perform as commanded.

[tnt22]

Feb 10 02:34

Antenna checks are being performed to verify functionality of the GPS Metric Tracking system. GPS MT is the system that uses the orbiting Global Positioning System navigation satellite constellation to track the rocket's flight downrange with position, velocity and timing information.

[tnt22]

Feb 10 02:37

First stage propulsion and hydraulic preps have been completed. The propulsion preps configured the ground liquid oxygen transfer system and ground pneumatic supply systems for filling the Atlas first stage LOX tank and pressurizing the Atlas helium bottles for launch. The hydraulic preps configured the ground hydraulic pressure unit to provide for first stage main engine pre-launch hydraulic control.

[tnt22]

Feb 10 03:33

The initiation of gaseous nitrogen flow to the launch vehicle has started. This changes the environmental control system (ECS) to supply nitrogen gas rather than conditioned air to the internal compartments of the Atlas V and the payload fairing in preparation for fueling and launch.

[tnt22]

Feb 10 03:38

This is Atlas Launch Control at T-minus 2 hours, 55 minutes (L-3 hours, 35 minutes) and counting. Guidance system testing is complete.

[tnt22]

 Tory Bruno‏ @torybruno 11 мин. назад

T-2hrs and 50. Still looking good. #SolarOrbiter

[tnt22]

Feb 10 04:17

Weather remains 90% GO

In the pre-fueling weather briefing to mission management, Launch Weather Officer Jessica Williams reports that conditions remain favorable at Cape Canaveral for a rocket countdown. Skies are mostly clear, winds are within limits and there are no weather constraints against proceeding into Atlas V fueling operations as scheduled.

The launch time forecast remains 90 percent favorable, with the areas of concern now cumulus clouds and flight through precipitation.

The outlook calls for a few low clouds, easterly winds 20 peaking to 26 knots and a temperature near 67 degrees F.

[tnt22]

Feb 10 04:19

The launch pad crew has completed its hands-on work to ready Space Launch Complex-41 for today's mission, and Launch Conductor Scott Barney has given the instruction for personnel to depart the site in advance of fueling operations.