ILS Launches NRO Payload

An Atlas III launcher lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday morning carrying a national security payload. This also was one of two missions managed overnight by International Launch Services (ILS photo)

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla., Feb. 4/Satnews Daily/ — An Atlas III launch vehicle successfully placed a national security payload into orbit early yesterday morning.

The Atlas III vehicle, designated AC-206, lifted off from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 36B at 2:41 a.m. EST with a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The payload was released into orbit about 79 minutes later. Details of the payload and mission, known as NROL-23, are classified. This mission commenced only about five hours after another International Launch Services (ILS) vehicle, a Russian Proton rocket, lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with a commercial communications satellite.

The Cape Canaveral launch retires the Atlas III model after six flights, and was the final Atlas mission from Launch Complex 36, said ILS. The launch also set an industry record of 75 consecutive successful missions for the Atlas vehicle, said ILS. The string dates back to mid-1993, and includes the entire Atlas II and Atlas III series of vehicles as well as Atlas V vehicles launched to date. The Atlas vehicles are built by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and marketed worldwide by ILS.

ILS said the final Atlas II vehicle flew from Pad 36A last Aug. 31, also with an NRO payload. Since 1962, 145 Atlas vehicles have been launched from Complex 36 - 69 from Pad A and 76 from Pad B. Operations were run from a "blockhouse" that dates back to the 1960s, but with electronic systems that were upgraded along with the rockets. Lockheed Martin will be shutting down all operations at Complex 36 over the next several months and return the facilities to Air Force control.

"Some may see this as the end of an era, but the best tribute we can make to the Atlas heritage is to continue the excellent work of this program," ILS president Mark Albrecht said.

ILS is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Russian rocket builder Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center.

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