CAPE CANAVERAL, AFS - An Atlas 5 rocket is scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral today carrying a satellite so secret no government agency will claim ownership. What is known about the mission is the publicly-announced launch window opens at 5:35 pm. EDT and closes at 7:44, although the actual available window may fall somewhere in between.
ATLAS 5 PAN MISSION OVERVIEW LAUNCH WEATHER FORECAST LAUNCH HAZARD AREA ADVISORY RESTRICTED AIRSPACE MAP United Launch Alliance, the builder of the Atlas launch vehicle, may need all of the window to get the rocket off the ground. The weather forecast calls for just a 40% chance that conditions will permit liftoff. On Wednesday, the odss of acceptable weather get even worse, with a 70% chance of being unacceptable. The primary concern for weather is the possibility of thunderstorms and charged anvil clouds producing lightning that could knock the rocket out of the sky. Officially, the Air Force 45th Weather Squandron forecast calls for, "increasing moisture, afternoon heating, and the influence of the upper level trough results in afternoon and evening thunderstorms. The seabreeze is expected to develop near noon and serve as the focus for developing thunderstorms as it pushes slowly to the West." "Upper level steering winds will cause thunderstorms to slowly drift back toward the East coast. Westerly anvil level winds are a threat to transport anvil clouds back toward the East coast. The primary concerns for launch day are anvil clouds, cumulus clouds, and lightning." "In the event of a 24 hour delay, increasing moisture and gradual strengthening of upper level winds will transport interior thunderstorms and anvil clouds back to the East coast. The primary concerns for a 24 hour delay are anvil clouds, cumulus clouds, and lightning." Despite the dismal forecast, workers rolled the rocket from the Vertical Integration Facility 1/3 of a mile to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 this morning. The thirty minute drive to the pad began at 10:06 a.m. EDT as two tracked crawlers pushed the rocket's mobile launcher along rail tracks to SLC-40's "clean pad" where technicians hooked up ground support electical connections and umbilicals. The countdown for today's launch begins at 10:25 a.m. EDT. The mission is somewhat of a mystery. Actually, the term "somewhat" may be an understatement. The only thing known about the satellite is that it is built around on a commercially-available spacecraft bus and is named PAN, which may stand for "Palladium At Night". The approximate ascent timeline is known as well. The rocket's RD-180 powered first stage will burn out approximately 4 minutes, 3 seconds into flight, followed by ignition of the Centaur second stage. The Centaur will shutdown at T+17 minutes, 27 seconds and the rocket will enter a 1 hour, 47 minute, 43 second coast phase before the Centaur engine fires again for 1 minute, 26 seconds. Spacecraft separation will occur about 1 hour, 59 minutes and 25 seconds after launch. (the Spacearium / Space Media Corporation)
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