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
The New Math of Wrinkling thumbnail

The New Math of Wrinkling

A few minutes into a 2018 talk at the University of Michigan, Ian Tobasco picked up a large piece of paper and crumpled it into a seemingly disordered ball of chaos. He held it up for the audience to see, squeezed it for good measure, then spread it out again. “I get a wild mass
Read More
A Call to Action for Earthlings thumbnail

A Call to Action for Earthlings

Nothing prepared Nicole Stott for her first view of Earth from space. “I was overwhelmed,” she says. “I felt awe, and then this connection with gratitude to be looking at our glowing, colorful planet in deep space.”Stott’s first spaceflight was in 2009 as a flight engineer on the NASA space shuttle to support a three-month
Read More
Creating smart sensors from advanced semiconductors could mean cheaper, greener IoTs thumbnail

Creating smart sensors from advanced semiconductors could mean cheaper, greener IoTs

A technological difficulty arises from powering the growing number of sensor nodes utilized in the Internet of Things. Due to the cost and environmental concerns with battery-powered gadgets, wirelessly powered operation and environmentally friendly circuit innovations will be required. Large-area electronics—which can be based on organic semiconductors, amorphous metal oxide semiconductors, semiconducting carbon nanotubes, and
Read More
Should You Pump, Press, or Slam Your Brakes on a Patch of Ice? thumbnail

Should You Pump, Press, or Slam Your Brakes on a Patch of Ice?

Photo: Frederic Legrand - COMEO (Shutterstock)Sure signs of winter include: the sudden desire to wear long underwear, a craving for hot chocolate, and a proliferation of snowy road disasters highlighted in the IdiotsInCars subreddit.Humanity has been dealing with snow and ice for thousands of years, but driving a car on icy roads has only been a…
Read More
Index Of News
Total
0
Share