After flip-flopping the firing order of Atlas 5 rocket launches and with the mission to deploy a pair of NASA science satellites into the radiation belts successfully accomplished last week, a national security flight from California is next up on the booster’s manifest again.
Originally scheduled for blastoff August 2 from America’s western spaceport at Vandenberg Air Force Base, the launch known as NROL-36 was grounded due to technical troubles with the Range’s Mission Flight Control Center. That vital facility processes radar, optical and telemetry data from various instrumentation sites and displays that information to the lead safety personnel responsible to monitoring the rocket’s trajectory for public safety reasons.
After several weeks to troubleshoot, test and recertify the center, officials hope to launch the rocket on its clandestine mission to dispatch a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office the afternoon of Sept. 13.
Liftoff will occur some time during an unclassified period extending from 20:45 – 23:15 UTC. The exact launch time will be announced a few days in advance.