United Launch Alliance is ready to launch a batch of Amazon Leo’s broadband web satellites on its Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station on Friday night, climate allowing.
The countdown for the mission dubbed Amazon Leo 7 by ULA and Leo Atlas 07 (LA-07) by Amazon started at 12:13:30 p.m. EDT (1613:30 UTC) at T-minus 6 hours, 20 minutes. There countdown options two planed, 30-minute holds with the primary coming earlier than fueling begins at T-minus 2 hours.
That is the seventh batch of manufacturing satellites that ULA will launch on behalf of Amazon and the penultimate mission for the tech big utilizing an Atlas 5 rocket.
Liftoff from Area Launch Advanced 41 is scheduled for 7:33:30 p.m. EDT (2333:30 UTC), on the opening of a 29-minute window. The rocket will fly on a north-easterly trajectory upon leaving the launch pad.
Spaceflight Now could have reside protection starting about an hour previous to liftoff.
The forty fifth Climate Squadron forecast a dismal outlook for the Atlas 5 flight, stating that there was only a 30 p.c likelihood for acceptable climate circumstances in the course of the window.
“For the following a number of days, an inflow of moisture and westerly-to-southwesterly low-level winds will carry prime circumstances for afternoon showers and thunderstorms alongside the east coast of Florida,” launch climate officers wrote. “For each the first and backup launch days, there may be excessive chance of climate violations. Virtually each rule could have an opportunity to violate however the Cumulus Cloud Rule, Anvil Cloud Guidelines, and Floor Electrical Fields Rule are the most definitely.”
The rocket launching at present is designated AV-113 and would be the 109th launch of an Atlas 5 rocket to this point. This would be the twenty second launch of the rocket within the Atlas 5 551 configuration, which options 5 strong rocket boosters.
Amazon bought a complete of 47 launches from ULA: 38 Vulcan rockets and 9 Atlas 5 rockets. Nevertheless, as a result of the debut of Vulcan was delayed, Amazon moved its two prototype satellites (branded as Challenge Kuiper on the time) and flew them in 2023 on considered one of its 9 Atlas 5 rockets one a devoted mission referred to as Protoflight.
After the LA-07 mission launches, Amazon Leo could have only one Atlas 5 rocket remaining. The Vulcan rocket stays grounded for the reason that USSF-87 mission in February suffered an SRB nozzle burn by means of.
Amazon bought greater than 108 rockets with a view to launch its first-generation constellation, which is able to include greater than 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit.
The Federal Communications Fee requires Amazon to have half its constellation in operation by the top of July 2026, however as of Friday afternoon, the corporate solely has about 300 satellites in orbit. The corporate filed a request to loosen up that requirement and that’s nonetheless being evaluated.
Amazon was relying on flying its satellites aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn rockets beginning as quickly as June 4 however the Might 28 explosion of the New Glenn rocket dashed these hopes. With the rocket’s launch pad significantly broken, it wasn’t instantly clear when New Glenn would fly once more.
Amazon Leo confirmed on Friday that its satellites had been on the firm’s payload processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart on the time of the explosion and weren’t harmed. Individually, ULA stated that its launch pad infrastructure was not affected by the explosion.
“Groups are supporting the Cape Canaveral Area Drive Station Emergency Operations Heart (EOC) and assessing ULA Atlas services for any crossover gadgets. The group has accomplished an preliminary evaluation, and the ability energy and purges all seem nominal at SLC-41,” ULA stated in an announcement.
“The rocket stays safely on the pad. The rocket and spacecraft are wholesome. The group will proceed to watch the launch automobile and floor techniques and supply updates when out there.”
