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Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Orbital ATK Cygnus pressurized cargo module, enclosed in its payload fairing, is secured on a KAMAG transporter. The Orbital ATK CRS-7 commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Cygnus will deliver 7,600 pounds of supplies, equipment and scientific research materials to the space station. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, engineers and technicians encapsulate the agency’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in its payload fairing. Targeted for liftoff at 7:05 p.m. EDT Sept. 8, 2016, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.
Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
A Cascades Thunderbots "Robotics for Youth" team member from Sterling, Virginia asks a question during an Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) announcement, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Nine companies will be able to bid on delivering science and technology payloads for NASA, including payload integration and operations, launching from Earth and landing on the surface of the Moon. NASA expects to be one of many customers that will use these commercial landing services. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians assist as the SpaceX payload fairing containing the agency's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is lowered by crane onto a transporter. The fairing will be moved to Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. TESS is scheduled to launch on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:32 p.m. EDT on April 16. The satellite is the next step in NASA's search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Dr. George Ricker of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research serves as principal investigator for the mission. Additional partners include Orbital ATK, NASA’s Ames Research Center, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Space Telescope Science Institute. More than a dozen universities, research institutes and observatories worldwide are participants in the mission. NASA’s Launch Services Program is responsible for launch management. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
On June 28, Goddard hosted a Media/VIP/Employee Day to explain the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) payload onboard STS-135. The joint effort between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency is designed to demonstrate and test the tools, technologies, and techniques needed to robotically refuel satellites in space. Reporters were also provided an in depth look into how Goddard has provided the communications network for voice, data and video support throughout the shuttle program.
In this photo Frank Cepollina, Project Manager, Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office, points out the features of a replica of the Robotic Refuel Mission module nicknamed ‘Rossi’.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine talks via satellite with NASA astronaut Stan Love from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston during an event where it was announced that nine U.S. companies are eligible to bid on NASA delivery services to the lunar surface through Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contracts, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The companies will be able to bid on delivering science and technology payloads for NASA, including payload integration and operations, launching from Earth and landing on the surface of the Moon. NASA expects to be one of many customers that will use these commercial landing services. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine talks with Dave Lavery, Program Executive for Solar System Exploration, and Dishaa Bhat, 14, from Mary Henderson Middle School in Falls Church, Virginia, during a event where it was announced that nine U.S. companies are eligible to bid on NASA delivery services to the lunar surface through Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contracts, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The companies will be able to bid on delivering science and technology payloads for NASA, including payload integration and operations, launching from Earth and landing on the surface of the Moon. NASA expects to be one of many customers that will use these commercial landing services. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Both halves of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket payload fairing are transported by convoy to ULA's Building B8337 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) will launch later this year on the final Delta II rocket. ICESat-2 will measure the height of a changing Earth, one laser pulse at a time, 10,000 laser pulses a second. The satellite will carry a single instrument, the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System. ICESat-2 will help scientists investigate why, and how much our planet's frozen and icy areas, called the cryosphere, is changing in a warming climate. Photo Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
On June 28, Goddard hosted a Media/VIP/Employee Day to explain the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) payload onboard STS-135. The joint effort between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency is designed to demonstrate and test the tools, technologies, and techniques needed to robotically refuel satellites in space. Reporters were also provided an in depth look into how Goddard has provided the communications network for voice, data and video support throughout the shuttle program.
In this photo Benjamin Reed, Deputy Project Manager, Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office, explains how the Robotic Refueling Mission module will operate when positioned on the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Encapsulated inside its payload fairing, the Cygnus spacecraft for the upcoming Orbital ATK Commercial Resupply Services-6 mission moves past the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Mounted atop a KAMAG transporter, Cygnus is being moved to Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station where it will be mounted atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The Cygnus is scheduled to lift off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on March 22 to deliver hardware and supplies to the International Space Station.
Photo credit: NASA/Dimitrios Gerondidakis
A bi-sector half of the payload fairing for a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is lifted upright for its move into the mobile service tower on Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Preparations are underway for launch of the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) spacecraft in 2017. JPSS-1 is part of the next-generation environmental satellite system, a collaborative program between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA. To learn more about JPSS-1, visit www.jpss.noaa.gov. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians and engineers prepare to test the release of the solar array deployment mechanism on the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security--Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Targeted for liftoff Sept. 8, 2016, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.
Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
The Rockwell (now part of Boeing) B-1 Lancer is a four-engine, variable-sweep wing strategic bomber used by the United States Air Force. First envisioned in the 1960s as a supersonic bomber with sufficient range and payload to replace the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, it developed primarily into a low-level penetrator with long range and supersonic speed capability.
The bomber's development was delayed multiple times over its history, as the theory of strategic balance changed from flexible response to mutually assured destruction and back again. The initial B-1A version was developed in the early 1970s, but its production was canceled and only four prototypes were built. In 1980, the B-1 resurfaced as the B-1B version with the focus on low-level penetration bombing. The B-1B entered service with the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1986.
The B-1B began service with the USAF Strategic Air Command as a nuclear bomber. In the 1990s, it was converted to conventional bombing use. It was first used in combat during Operation Desert Fox in 1998 and during the NATO action in Kosovo the following year. The B-1B continues to support U.S. and NATO military in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Lancer is the supersonic component of the USAF's long-range bomber force, along with the subsonic B-52 and Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit. The bomber is commonly called the "Bone" (originally from "B-One"). With the retirement of the General Dynamics/Grumman EF-111A Raven in 1998 and the Grumman F-14 Tomcat in 2006, the B-1B is the U.S. military's only active variable-sweep wing aircraft.
General characteristics
* Crew: 4 (aircraft commander, copilot, offensive systems officer and defensive systems officer)
* Payload: 125,000 lb (56,600 kg) ; internal and external ordnance combined
* Length: 146 ft (44.5 m)
* Wingspan:
o Extended: 137 ft (41.8 m)
o Swept: 79 ft (24.1 m)
* Height: 34 ft (10.4 m)
* Wing area: 1,950 ft² (181.2 m²)
* Airfoil: NA69-190-2
* Empty weight: 192,000 lb (87,100 kg)
* Loaded weight: 326,000 lb (148,000 kg)
* Max takeoff weight: 477,000 lb (216,400 kg)
* Powerplant: 4× General Electric F101-GE-102 augmented turbofans
o Dry thrust: 14,600 lbf (64.9 kN) each
o Thrust with afterburner: 30,780 lbf (136.92 kN) each
* Fuel capacity, optional: 10,000 U.S. gal (38,000 L) fuel tank for 1–3 internal weapons bays each
Performance
* Maximum speed:
o At altitude: Mach 1.25 (721 knots, 830 mph, 1,340 km/h at 50,000 ft/15,000 m altitude)
o At low level: Mach 0.92 (700 mph, 1,130 km/h at 200–500 ft/60-150 m altitude)
* Range: 6,478 nmi (7,456 mi, 11,998 km)
* Combat radius: 2,993 nmi (3,445 mi, 5,543 km)
* Service ceiling: 60,000 ft (18,000 m)
* Wing loading: 167 lb/ft² (816 kg/m²)
* Thrust/weight: 0.38
Armament
* Hardpoints: six external hardpoints for 50,000 lb (22,700 kg) of ordnance (use for weapons currently restricted by START I treaty) and 3 internal bomb bays for 75,000 lb (34,000 kg) of ordnance.
* Bombs:
o 84× Mk-82 AIR inflatable retarder general purpose bombs
o 81× Mk-82 low drag general purpose bombs
o 84× Mk-62 Quickstrike sea mines
o 24× Mk-65 naval mines
o 30× CBU-87/89/CBU-97 Cluster Bomb Units (CBU)[N 1]
o 30× CBU-103/104/105 Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser
o 24× GBU-31 JDAM GPS guided bombs[N 2]
o 15× GBU-38 JDAM GPS guided bombs (Mk-82 general purpose warhead)[N 3]
o 24× Mk-84 general purpose bombs
o 12× AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon
o 96× or 144× GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb GPS guided bombs[N 4] (not fielded on B-1 yet)
o 24× AGM-158 JASSM
o 24× B61 thermonuclear variable-yield gravity bombs (no longer carried)
o 24x B83 nuclear bomb (no longer carried)
Avionics
* 1× AN/APQ-164 forward-looking offensive passive phased-array radar
* 1× AN/ALQ-161 radar warning and defensive jamming equipment
* 1× AN/ASQ-184 defensive management system
* 1× Lockheed Martin Sniper XR targeting pod (optional)
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University's EagleCam Payload Flat Sat testing performed at Intuitive Machines' Houston Headquarters.
The payload fairing containing NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S), secured on a transporter, arrives at the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The payload fairing will be lifted and mated to the ULA Atlas V rocket. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. GOES-S is slated to launch aboard the ULA Atlas V on March 1. Photo credit: NASA/Bill White
A technician inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida installs a memory card containing a total of 1,350,144 names as part of a commemorative plaque on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Friday, July 17, 2026. The names, submitted by people from across the globe, including astronauts from NASA’s Artemis II and Artemis III missions, will travel with the Roman observatory to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2, or L2, about one million miles from Earth, where the Sun’s and Earth’s gravity balance out. Roman is named after Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer and one of the architects of the agency’s modern science program. Photo credit: NASA/Jolearra Tshiteya
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Kudeki High Flyer vehicle payload mounted on the launch rail on April 24, 2013. It is covered with a velostat bag and is being purged to help prevent moisture from causing a problem. The vehicle is a Terrier Oriole configuration.
EVEX team member Doug Rowland reported on April 24:
“We were able to mount the high flyer rocket for EVEX on the launch rail yesterday. Today we are expecting the technician to come to assist with the loading of the Trimethyl Aluminum (TMA) chemical canister. Once that is complete, we can load the low flyer rocket for EVEX as well. We will do a practice countdown today, and another tomorrow.”
Credit: NASA
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A NASA-funded sounding rocket mission will launch from an atoll in the Pacific this spring. The mission will help scientists better understand and predict the electrical storms in Earth's upper atmosphere that can negatively affect satellite communication and global positioning signals.
The mission, called EVEX, for the Equatorial Vortex Experiment, will launch into a crucial layer of charged particles surrounding our planet. Called the ionosphere, this layer serves as the medium through which high frequency radio waves – such as those sent down to the ground by global positioning system (GPS) satellites or, indeed, any satellite communicating with Earth – travel. The ionosphere begins about 60 miles above the ground and is filled with electrons and ions, alongside the more familiar extension of our electrically neutral atmosphere. Governed by Earth’s magnetic field, high-altitude winds, and incoming material and energy from the sun, the ionosphere can be calm in certain places or times of day, and quite turbulent at others.
EVEX will launch two rockets for a twelve-minute journey through the equatorial ionosphere above the South Pacific. This area of the ionosphere is known for calm days and tempestuous evenings, times when the ionosphere becomes rippled like a funhouse mirror, disturbing radio signals, and introducing GPS errors of a half mile or more. The two rockets will measure events in two separate regions of the ionosphere to see how they work together to drive the ionosphere from placid and smooth to violently disturbed. Such information could ultimately lead to the ability to accurately forecast this important aspect of space weather.
The launch window for EVEX is from April 27 to May 10. The team will decide when to fly based on conditions in the ionosphere on any given night.
Read more at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sounding-rockets/news/evex.html
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Embry Riddle Aeronautical University's EagleCam Payload Flat Sat testing performed at Intuitive Machines' Houston Headquarters.
On June 28, Goddard hosted a Media/VIP/Employee Day to explain the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) payload onboard STS-135. The joint effort between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency is designed to demonstrate and test the tools, technologies, and techniques needed to robotically refuel satellites in space. Reporters were also provided an in depth look into how Goddard has provided the communications network for voice, data and video support throughout the shuttle program.
In this photo Justin Cassidey, Project Manager, Robotic Refueling Mission, explains where the tools for the mission will be stowed when not in use.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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S85-44835 (20 Nov. 1985) --- This flying human chain represents prime and backup payload specialists for two upcoming STS missions. The group, representing trainees for STS-61C later this year and STS-51L early next year, shared some 40 parabolas in NASA's KSC-135, "Zero-G" aircraft on Nov. 20. Left to right are Gerard Magilton, RCA backup payload specialist for STS-61C; Sharon Christa McAuliffe, payload specialist/teacher citizen observer for STS-51L; U.S. Rep. Bill Nelson (D., Florida), scheduled for 61-C; Barbara R. Morgan, backup to McAuliffe; and Robert J. Cenker, RCA payload specialist for 61-C. The photo was taken by Keith Meyers, New York Times. Photo credit: NASA
Payloaders from the MTA's New York City bus divisions assisted with snow clearance in Suffolk County. They plowed parking lots of the LIRR's Ronkonkoma station, and worked from exit 60 to exit 64 on the Long Island Expressway eastbound clearing snow from the guard rail, creating the third lane of traffic. They also scrapped the road bed packed with ice for plowing and salt application.
Photo: MTA New York City Transit.
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility the solar array panel now have been attached to NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Targeted for liftoff Sept. 8, 2016, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.
Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
There is an Atlas-F rocket on display at Kennedy Space Center with a dummy Agena stage on top. In reality, almost all Atlas-Agena rockets were “Atlas-D” models.
Atlas-Agena
The Atlas-Agena was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was launched 109 times between 1960 and 1978. It was used to launch the first five Mariner unmanned probes to the planets Venus and Mars, and the Ranger and Lunar Orbiter unmanned probes to the Moon. The upper stage was also used as an unmanned orbital target vehicle for the Gemini manned spacecraft to practice rendezvous and docking. However, the launch vehicle family was originally developed for the Air Force and most of its launches were classified DoD payloads.
The Atlas-Agena was a two-and-a-half-stage rocket, with a stage-and-a-half Atlas missile as the first stage, and an RM-81 Agena second stage. Initially, Atlas D missiles, re-designated as the LV-3, were used as the first stage. These were later replaced by the standardized Atlas SLV-3, and its derivatives, the SLV-3A and B. The final Atlas-Agena launch used an Atlas E/F.
The earliest Agena variant was the Agena A in 1959-60, which did not have restart capability. Most of these were flown on Thor-Agena boosters for the Discoverer program and only four used Atlases (Midas 1, Midas 2, Samos 1, and Samos 2), two of which failed.
Late in 1960, Lockheed introduced the uprated Agena B stage which was restartable and had longer propellant tanks for more burn time. It first flew on the Thor and did not make its maiden voyage on an Atlas for months, when Midas 3 launched on July 12, 1961. Atlas-Agenas were then used for DoD and NASA programs, but proved a reliability nightmare as one failure after another happened. In late 1962, after Ranger 5 suffered another booster malfunction (albeit a minor one that ground controllers were able to work around), NASA convened a review board which undertook a wholesale reevaluation of the Atlas-Agena as a launch vehicle. The board found that quality control and checkout procedures were poor, and that this situation was exacerbated by the several dozen configurations of the booster, as each individual DoD and NASA program necessitated custom modifications to the Atlas and Agena, and the latter also differed in its Atlas and Thor variants. The board recommended improved quality control, better hardware, and also establishing one standardized launch vehicle for all space programs.
The end result was the Atlas SLV-3 and Agena D, standardized versions of the Atlas D core and Agena B which would be the same on every launch (at least as far as the Atlas was concerned, Agena Ds often still had customized setups, especially for DoD payloads). The Agena D first flew in July 1963 for DoD launches, but NASA continued using Agena Bs for the remaining Ranger missions. The Atlas SLV-3 meanwhile first flew in August 1964. Dozens of Atlas SLV-3/Agena D boosters were flown over the following years, mostly for the KH-7 Gambit program, also for a few NASA missions. The last Atlas-Agena was flown in 1978 to launch SEASAT, but on a repurposed Atlas F missile rather than the SLV-3.
Launches were conducted from Launch Complexes 12, 13 and 14 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Launch Complexes 1 and 2 at Point Arguello (now SLC-3 and 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base).
•General Specifications
oFunction: Expendable launch system
oManufacturer: Convair; General Dynamics
oCountry of Origin: United States
•Size
oHeight: 118.0 feet (36.0 m)
oDiameter: 10.0 feet (3.0 m)
oWidth: 16.0 feet (4.9 m)
oMass: 341,000 pounds (155,000 kg)
oStages: 2½
•Capacity
oPayload to LEO: 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg)
oPayload to GEO: 1,540 pounds (700 kg)
oPayload to TLI: 850 pounds (390 kg)
oPayload to Escape: 575 pounds (261 kg)
•Launch History
oStatus: Retired
oLaunch Sites: LC-12, 13 & 14, CCAFS; SLC-3 & 4, Vandenberg
oTotal launches: 109
oSuccesses: 93
oFailures: 13
oPartial Failures: 3
oFirst Flight: February 26, 1960
oLast Flight: June 27, 1978
•Boosters
oNo. Boosters: 1
oWidth: 16.0 feet (4.9 m)
oEngines: 2
oThrust: 233,000 pounds-force (1,040 kN)
oBurn Time: 134 seconds
oFuel: RP-1/LOX
•First Stage
oDiameter: 10.0 feet (3.0 m)
oEngines: 1
oThrust: 67,000 pounds-force (300 kN)
oBurn Time: 5 minutes
oFuel: RP-1/LOX
•Second Stage – Agena D
oLength: 248 inches (6.3 m)
oDiameter: 5.0 feet (1.5 m)
oEngines: 1 Bell Aerospace 8247
oThrust: 16,000 pounds-force (71 kN)
oBurn Time: 265 seconds
oFuel: UDMH/IRFNA
Variants
•Atlas LV-3 Agena-A
oFirst Launch: 1960-02-26
oLast Launch: 1961-01-31
oLaunches: 4
oSuccesses: 2
oFailures: 2
oPartial Failures: 0
oRemarks: Early Atlas-Agena variant flown four times for the Midas and Samos programs
•Atlas LV-3 Agena-B
oFirst Launch: 1961-07-12
oLast Launch: 1965-03-21
oLaunches: 28
oSuccesses: 21
oFailures: 5
oPartial Failures: 2
oRemarks: Enhanced, restartable Agena. Used for a variety of NASA and Air Force programs, including Ranger, Mariner, Samos, and Midas.
•Atlas LV-3 Agena-D
oFirst Launch: 1963-07-12
oLast Launch: 1965-07-20
oLaunches: 15
oSuccesses: 15
oFailures: 0
oPartial Failures: 0
oRemarks: Standardized Agena B used for a variety of NASA and Air Force programs, including Ranger, Mariner, Midas, and Gambit.
•Atlas SLV-3 Agena-D
oFirst Launch: 1964-08-14
oLast Launch: 1967-11-05
oLaunches: 47
oSuccesses: 41
oFailures: 5
oPartial Failures: 1
oRemarks: Standardized SLV-3 Atlas+Agena D used for a variety of NASA and Air Force programs, including Mariner, Vela, and Gambit.
•Atlas SLV-3B Agena-D
oFirst Launch: 1966-04-08
oLast Launch: 1966-04-08
oLaunches: 1
oSuccesses: 1
oFailures: 0
oPartial Failures: 0
oRemarks: One-off Atlas variant used for the first OAO satellite.
•Atlas SLV-3 Agena-B
oFirst Launch: 1966-06-07
oLast Launch: 1966-06-07
oLaunches: 1
oSuccesses: 1
oFailures: 0
oPartial Failures: 0
oRemarks: One-off Atlas variant used for OAO-3
•Atlas SLV-3A Agena-D
oFirst Launch: 1968-03-04
oLast Launch: 1978-04-08
oLaunches: 12
oSuccesses: 11
oFailures: 1
oPartial Failures: 0
oRemarks: Extended tank Atlas. Used for OGO-5 and Canyon/Rhyolite SIGNIT satellites.
•Atlas E/F Agena D
oFirst Launch: 1978-06-27
oLast Launch: 1978-06-27
oLaunches: 1
oSuccesses: 1
oFailures: 0
oPartial Failures: 0
oRemarks: One-off Atlas variant mating the last Agena stage flown to a refurbished Atlas F missile for the launch of Seasat.
Destruct System
All Atlas-Agena vehicles contained an Inadvertent Separation Destruct System to destroy the Agena in the event that it separated prematurely from the Atlas, a situation that could be caused by a booster hard-over or if the Atlas self-destructed in flight. The ISDS charges were mounted on the adapter section between the two vehicles and would activate if a series of tripwires were broken. During the coasting period between staging, the ISDS charges were disabled. The Atlas’s own RSO charges were also wired so that they would destroy both vehicles if activated. Most Agenas also had their own separate RSO charges, although NASA planetary probes omitted them for weight-saving reasons and due to the flight trajectory used, which meant that destruct of the Agena was no longer possible following staging.
Two Atlas-Agena flights involved an intentional destruct of the Atlas (Mariner 1 and Canyon 4) while two others (Midas 6 and Midas 8) resulted in an ISDS destruction of the Agena following in-flight malfunction and self-destruct of the Atlas.
The Gemini-Agena Target Vehicle had a specially modified Range Safety destruct system designed to fire slugs into the propellant tanks rather than the conventional method of rupturing them externally, since an inadvertent activation of the RSO system in orbit could endanger the Gemini astronauts.
The very first Atlas-Agena flight, Midas 1 in February 1960, failed when the unproven ISDS system mistakenly activated at staging, rupturing the Atlas’s LOX tank and causing the breakup of the Agena. The ISDS system was redesigned afterwards and this failure mode did not repeat itself.
Production Launches
Ranger
Ranger block I spacecraft bus was used for the first two Rangers, and also for the first two Mariner interplanetary probes.
The Ranger spacecraft were designed to impact the Moon, returning photographs of the lunar surface until their destruction. The spacecraft was designed in three Blocks, all similar in appearance with a forward antenna and magnetometer, supported by a boom, with more sensors and two solar panels and a dish antenna mounted at the base. The first two Block I spacecraft, Ranger 1 and Ranger 2, were launched on August 23 and November 18, 1961, not to the Moon, but in intended high Earth orbits to test the Atlas-Agena and spacecraft capabilities. However, the Agena malfunctioned on both flights and left the probes trapped in a useless low Earth orbit from which they soon decayed.
The Block II missions, Ranger 3, Ranger 4, and Ranger 5, were launched away from Earth in January, April, and October 1962, but all three failed due to either malfunctions of the probe or launch vehicle difficulties. Ranger 3 missed the Moon entirely. Ranger 4’s solar panels failed to deploy, and the navigation system failed, sending the probe to impact the lunar far side without returning any pictures or data. Ranger 5 suffered an unknown failure which deprived it of power, and it missed the Moon by 725 kilometers (391 nautical miles).
Ranger 6, launched January 30, 1964, successfully impacted the Moon but its cameras failed to return pictures. The last three Rangers were finally successful: Ranger 7 in July 1964, Ranger 8 in February 1965, and Ranger 9 in March 1965.
Mariner
The Mariner spacecraft were built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mariner 1 and Mariner 2 were twins, launched on July 22 and August 27, 1962, to fly by the planet Venus. The first two craft used the same spacecraft bus as the Block I Rangers, each weighing 446 pounds (202 kg) and instrumented to perform radiometric temperature measurements of the planet, and to measure interplanetary magnetic fields and particles. Mariner 1’s Atlas-Agena malfunctioned and went off course, requiring its destruction approximately 5 minutes after liftoff. Mariner 2 successfully made the 3½-month flight, becoming the first spacecraft to fly by another planet. It carried microwave and infrared radiometers, and sensors for cosmic dust, solar plasma and high-energy radiation, and magnetic fields.
Mariner 3 and Mariner 4 used a redesigned spacecraft bus weighing 575 pounds (261 kg), and were launched on November 5 and November 28, 1964 to fly by the planet Mars. Mariner 3 failed after a successful launch when its payload shroud failed to open. These Mariners carried cameras, and Mariner 4 successfully returned pictures of Mars as it flew by.
The 540-pound (240 kg) Mariner 5 was successfully launched to Venus on June 14, 1967 and flew by in October, probing Venus’ atmosphere with radio waves, scanning its brightness in ultraviolet light, and sampling solar particles and magnetic field fluctuations above the planet.
Gemini
The Agena rocket stage was used as the passive docking target for the Gemini manned space program. After docking, the Agena could also be fired by the astronauts to raise the combined Gemini-Agena spacecraft into a higher orbit. The first attempt at such a docking mission was made for the Gemini 6 mission on October 25, 1965, but the Agena suffered an engine failure and did not reach orbit. This forced postponement and replanning of the Gemini 6A mission, which performed rendezvous with Gemini 7 without docking.
The GATV was first successfully launched for Gemini 8 on March 16, 1966, permitting the first successful docking in space. GATV-8 was later used as the secondary Agena target for Gemini 10, which also docked with its own GATV. GATV-9 failed to orbit when the Atlas suffered a control malfunction, forcing a similar reschedule of the Gemini 9A mission using a backup Augmented Target Docking Adapter atop an Atlas, but with no Agena rocket stage. Two more GATVs were successfully launched and used on Gemini 11 and Gemini 12.
Lunar Orbiter
A series of five Lunar Orbiter spacecraft were launched from August 1966 through August 1967, to help select landing sites for the Apollo manned lunar landing program by mapping the Moon’s surface. Each spacecraft weighed 850 pounds (390 kg) and was 4.9 feet (1.5 m) in diameter, minus the four extended solar panels. All launches were successful, and a total of 99 percent of the surface of the Moon (near and far side) was mapped with resolution as high as 3 ft. 3 in (1 meter). Altogether the Orbiters returned 2180 high resolution and 882 medium resolution frames. The spacecraft also carried micrometeroid sensors, which showed the average micro-meteoroid flux near the Moon to be two orders of magnitude greater than in interplanetary space, but slightly less than the near-Earth environment.
OAO
Orbiting Astronomical Observatory was a series of NASA satellites flown between 1966 and 1972 for astronomy studies. The first OAO (launched April 8, 1966) used a one-off Atlas variant, mating an Agena D to the LV-3C variant of the Atlas and encased in a Centaur-type payload shroud. The remaining three launches used actual Atlas-Centaur vehicles.
ATS
Applications Technology Satellite was a series of NASA satellites flown in 1967-69 to perform various technology tests. Only the first ATS was launched on an Atlas-Agena, the remainder using Atlas-Centaurs. ATS-1 was a partial failure when the Agena failed to restart, leaving it in LEO.
OGO
Orbiting Geophysical Observatory was a series of NASA satellites flown between 1964 and 1969 for magnetosphere studies. These satellites used several different booster types, including Thor-Agenas. Five of them used Atlas-Agenas, and OGO 5 (launched March 4, 1968) was the sole civilian use of the Atlas SLV-3A Agena.
Midas
Missile Defense Alarm System was a series of Air Force satellites flown between 1960 and 1966 for infrared detection of ballistic missile exhaust plumes on Atlas-Agena A, B, and D. There were several failures and overall program performance was poor, but it would give way to the more successful DSP satellites.
Samos
Samos was a series of Air Force satellites flown between 1960 and 1962 for photoreconnaissance on Atlas-Agena A and B. There were several failures, including an on-pad explosion of an Atlas, and the program was cancelled at the end of 1962 without ever demonstrating any operational capability.
Gambit
KH-7 Gambit was a series of Air Force satellites flown between 1963 and 1966 for photoreconnaissance on Atlas-Agena D. Although there were a number of mission failures, Gambit overall was highly successful in comparison with the bungled Samos program and it returned high-value area reconnaissance of the USSR and China before giving way to KH-8 Gambit in 1967.
Rhyolite/Canyon
Rhyolite/Canyon was a series of Air Force satellites flown between 1968 and 1978 for SIGNIT intelligence on Atlas SLV-3A Agena. One Canyon mission failed when its Atlas went off course and had to be destroyed. These were the final launches of Atlas-Agena vehicles aside from the one-off Atlas F/Agena used to launch Seasat.
Vela
Vela consisted of two sets of Air Force satellites flown in 1964-65 to monitor Soviet compliance with the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty on Atlas-Agena Ds.
Snapshot
Snapshot was a one-off Air Force test of a nuclear satellite flown in 1965 on an Atlas-Agena D.
PictionID:44806944 - Catalog:14_014061 - Title:Atlas Payload Component - Filename:14_014061.TIF - - - Image from the Convair/General Dynamics Astronautics Atlas Negative Collection. The processing, cataloging and digitization of these images has been made possible by a generous National Historical Publications and Records grant from the National Archives and Records Administration---Please Tag these images so that the information can be permanently stored with the digital file.---Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility high bay at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians are transferring supplies and hardware into the Orbital ATK Cygnus pressurized module during late stowage operations. The Cygnus spacecraft will carry more than 6,000 pounds of cargo on the next resupply flight to the International Space Station. Cygnus is undergoing prelaunch processing at Kennedy before launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket scheduled for December 3 from Space Launch Complex 41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida technicians and engineers cycle the sample return capsule (SRC) door in a test of NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Targeted for liftoff Sept. 8, 2016, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.
Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center, workers from Lockheed Martin prepare the high-gain antenna to be moved toward the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) for installation. After solar array installation, the MRO will be transported to the Vertical Installation Facility in late July. It will join the Atlas V for the final phase of launch preparations. The spacecraft is then scheduled to undergo a functional test, and a final week of integrated testing and closeouts. The MRO was built by Lockheed Martin for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. It is the next major step in Mars exploration and scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in a window opening Aug. 10. The MRO is an important next step in fulfilling NASAs vision of space exploration and ultimately sending human explorers to Mars and beyond. Image from NASA, originally appeared on this site: science.ksc.nasa.gov/gallery/photos/ Reposted by San Diego Air and Space Museum
PictionID:43096474 - Title:Atlas 363D, FIRE Details: Gantry pull back on Project FIRE Payload; CCMTA; Pad 12 Date: 09/30/1963 - Catalog:14_004659 - Filename:14_004659.TIF - - - - Image from the Convair/General Dynamics Astronautics Atlas Negative Collection---Please Tag these images so that the information can be permanently stored with the digital file.---Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum
On June 28, Goddard hosted a Media/VIP/Employee Day to explain the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) payload onboard STS-135. The joint effort between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency is designed to demonstrate and test the tools, technologies, and techniques needed to robotically refuel satellites in space. Reporters were also provided an in depth look into how Goddard has provided the communications network for voice, data and video support throughout the shuttle program.
In this photo Susan Hoge, Operations Director, Flight Dynamics Facility, explains the support Goddard provides during a shuttle mission from launch to landing.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Pat Izzo
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine talks with Barbara Cohen, associate project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland during a event where it was announced that nine U.S. companies are eligible to bid on NASA delivery services to the lunar surface through Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contracts, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The companies will be able to bid on delivering science and technology payloads for NASA, including payload integration and operations, launching from Earth and landing on the surface of the Moon. NASA expects to be one of many customers that will use these commercial landing services. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
The payload fairing containing NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S), secured on a transporter, arrives at the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The payload fairing will be lifted and mated to the ULA Atlas V rocket. GOES-S is the second in a series of four advanced geostationary weather satellites. GOES-S is slated to launch aboard the ULA Atlas V on March 1. Photo credit: NASA/Bill White
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, members of the news media get a close-up view of a Cygnus cargo vessel. The spacecraft is scheduled for the upcoming Orbital ATK Commercial Resupply Services-6 mission to deliver hardware and supplies to the International Space Station. Reporters, technicians and engineers are clad in "bunny suits." The cleanroom garments are worn to prevent contamination in the controlled environment. The Cygnus is scheduled to lift off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on March 22.
Photo credit: NASA/Bill White
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility technicians and engineers inspect a solar array panel on NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Targeted for liftoff Sept. 8, 2016, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.
Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is encapsulated in its payload fairing. Targeted for liftoff at 7:05 p.m. EDT Sept. 8, 2016, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.
Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
The United Launch Alliance Atlas V payload fairings are being secured around NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T) inside the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida, on Feb. 7, 2022. The payload fairings will secure and protect the satellite during launch.
GOES-T is scheduled to launch on March 1, 2022, atop the Atlas V 541 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
GOES-T is the third satellite in the GOES-R series ― the Western Hemisphere's most advanced weather-observing and environmental monitoring system. Data from GOES-T will help meteorologists see the big picture as well as read the fine print, providing critical real-time information before, during and after severe weather and disasters strike.
The launch is being managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, America’s multi-user spaceport.
Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
Technicians dressed in clean room suits monitor the progress as a crane lowers NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) onto a test stand inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Inside the PHSF, the satellite will be processed and prepared for its flight. TESS is scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. TESS is the next step in NASA's search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Dr. George Ricker of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research serves as principal investigator for the mission. Additional partners include Orbital ATK, NASA’s Ames Research Center, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Space Telescope Science Institute. More than a dozen universities, research institutes and observatories worldwide are participants in the mission. NASA’s Launch Services Program is responsible for launch management. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
Jumbo dart used as part of the Ares I parachute test is loaded into the back of a U.S. Air Force C-17, April 13, 2010. A specialized trailer was used to handle its 77,000 pound weight.
Credit: NASA
About the drop test:
Under a brilliant early morning Arizona sky, NASA conducted a successful, record-breaking test of a drogue parachute being designed to return next-generation space vehicles safely to Earth. The 77,000-pound payload used in the test was dropped from the back of a U.S. Air Force C-17 at an altitude of 25,000 feet, setting a record for the heaviest single load ever extracted out of a C-17 during flight. NASA conducted the drop test, April 14, at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground near Yuma, Ariz.
Read more:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/H10-134.html
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A technician inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida installs a memory card containing a total of 1,350,144 names as part of a commemorative plaque on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Friday, July 17, 2026. The names, submitted by people from across the globe, including astronauts from NASA’s Artemis II and Artemis III missions, will travel with the Roman observatory to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2, or L2, about one million miles from Earth, where the Sun’s and Earth’s gravity balance out. Roman is named after Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer and one of the architects of the agency’s modern science program. Photo credit: NASA/Jolearra Tshiteya
NASA image use policy.
S85-46205 (December 1985) --- Sharon Christa McAuliffe (left), from Concord, New Hampshire, and Barbara R. Morgan of McCall, Idaho, have been named NASA Teacher-in-Space Project prime and backup payload specialists, respectively, for the first citizen observer position of the STS program, scheduled for a Challenger flight in January 1986. Photo credit: NASA
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility high bay at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians are transferring supplies and hardware into the Orbital ATK Cygnus pressurized module during late stowage operations. The Cygnus spacecraft will carry more than 7,000 pounds of cargo on the next resupply flight to the International Space Station. Cygnus is undergoing prelaunch processing at Kennedy before launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket scheduled for December 3 from Space Launch Complex 41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
Inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility technicians and engineers attach a solar array panel to NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Targeted for liftoff Sept. 8, 2016, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, OSIRIS-Rex will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth for study. The asteroid, Bennu, may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.
Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky