Atlas V rocket launches SBIRS Geo-5 missile warning satellite for US Space Force

United Launch Alliance launches Atlas V rocket with SBIRS Geo-5 missile warning satellite for US Space Force

What's in the image?: It's the launch of the Atlas V rocket, with plumes and smoke forming its

    trail. Image credit: Space Launch Delta 45

Today (May 19), at 1:37 p.m. EDT, United Launch Alliance launched an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 here at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It's the first launch by the company this year. The mission called Space-Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Flight 5, is to send a missile-warning satellite for the U.S. Space Force to Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). 

The satellite which costs $1 billion is built by Lockheed Martin, is designed to detect and track plumes produced by missile launches around the world with its infrared sensors. The Atlas V will deploy the spacecraft in an orbit ranging in altitude between 575 miles (925 kilometers) and 22,216 miles (35,753 km), with an inclination angle of 21.14 degrees to the equator. 

Image showing the SBIRS satellite. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin 

The flight is the eighth time overall that an Atlas V has flown in the 421 configuration and marked the 87th flight of an Atlas V. 



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