Photos: Landsat 9 encapsulated inside Atlas payload shroud


If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member. If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further.


The Landsat 9 satellite is set for launch Sept. 27 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. These photos show the encapsulation of the environmental monitoring spacecraft inside the payload fairing of its Atlas 5 launcher.

Ground crews enclosed the 5,981-pound (2,713-kilogram) spacecraft within the nose cone of the Atlas 5 rocket Aug. 16 inside the  Integrated Processing Facility at Vandenberg.

Landsat 9 was built by Northrop Grumman and is the next in a line of land imaging satellites developed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. The Landsat satellites track agricultural activity, forestry, water resources, urban growth, and other changes on Earth’s land surfaces.

The new Landsat satellite is scheduled for liftoff on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket at 11:11 a.m. PDT (2:11 p.m. EDT; 1811 GMT) on Monday, Sept. 27.

Landsat 9 will launch on the basic version of ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket without any solid rocket boosters. The spacecraft is nestled inside the longest version of the Atlas 5’s four-meter diameter (13.1-foot) payload fairing.

After encapsulation, the spacecraft was moved to the Atlas 5 launch pad at Space Launch Complex 3-East, where a crane raised the Landsat 9 satellite and its payload fairing on top of the rocket Sept. 15.

Read our mission preview story for more details.

Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
Credit: USSF 30th Space Wing/Chris Okula
Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
Credit: USSF 30th Space Wing/Chris Okula
Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
Credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.


If you would like to see more articles like this please support our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member. If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further.


Note: This article have been indexed to our site. We do not claim legitimacy, ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at original source Click Here

Related Posts
From grey to green: Using seagrass instead of seawalls to keep our shorelines where they are thumbnail

From grey to green: Using seagrass instead of seawalls to keep our shorelines where they are

Dr Alice Twomey – Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Queensland. Credit: University of Queensland As rising sea-levels threaten coastal communities, people have turned from costly infrastructure to seagrass for coastal defense. But most research has stuck to testing similar coasts, grasses and soils. Dr. Alice Twomey (The University of Queensland) and her colleagues have discovered…
Read More
Les femelles dauphins ont aussi un clitoris complexe et sensible qui leur procure du plaisir thumbnail

Les femelles dauphins ont aussi un clitoris complexe et sensible qui leur procure du plaisir

La présence et le fonctionnement du clitoris chez l'être humain ont longtemps été ignorés et les connaissances relatives à cet organe du plaisir demeurent parcellaires. Il est donc évident que rares sont les connaissances au sujet de l'anatomie du clitoris et de son rôle chez d'autres espèces animales, telles que les grands dauphins.Cela vous intéressera…
Read More
A public–private partnership model for COVID-19 diagnostics thumbnail

A public–private partnership model for COVID-19 diagnostics

To the Editor — The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic placed unprecedented pressure on diagnostic systems worldwide. In early 2020, most countries were completely unprepared to carry out the massive systematic testing of symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals necessary to monitor and control spread of a virus undergoing community transmission. Not only were the established procedures for viral molecular…
Read More
Index Of News
Total
0
Share