An Atlas V rocket launched from Florida's Space Coast on Tuesday evening (Oct. 4), bringing two commercial communications satellites into orbit. The Atlas V rocket lifted up from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday at 5:36 p.m. EDT (2136 GMT) carrying the twin SES-20 and SES-21 satellites. The 196-foot (60-meter) rocket struck all of its targets early on. It, for example, ditched its three solid rocket boosters around 2 minutes after liftoff, and its payload fairing, which shielded the two satellites during launch, about 1.5 minutes later. The Atlas V's two stages separated at around T+4.5 minutes.
But there's still a lot of work to be done, as the Centaur upper stage of the rocket must still power itself to the deployment destinations for SES-20 and SES-21 near-circular, near-geosynchronous orbits high above Earth. If all goes as planned, SES-20 will be deployed around 5 hours and 40 minutes after liftoff, followed by SES-21 about 40 minutes later. According to a ULA mission description, the two spacecraft will next utilize their onboard propulsion systems to circularize their orbits, sending them zipping around Earth roughly 22,300 miles (35,900 kilometers) above the equator.
SES-20 and SES-21 can begin providing television broadcasting services across the United States for the Luxembourg telecom firm SES after they are established in their orbits and have gone through a checkout phase.
According to ULA representatives, the two spacecraft, built by Boeing with thousands of narrow and steerable beams and the ability to isolate interference sources, provide SES and future customers with the ability to expand, extend, or even change a satellite's coverage area and mission throughout its lifetime.
Proven hardware combined with next-generation technologies resulted in an economical and lightweight spacecraft that could launch two satellites on a single rocket.
The Atlas V launch is part of a hectic week in orbit. SpaceX, for example, plans to launch the Crew-5 astronaut mission for NASA and another batch of Starlink internet satellites on two different missions on Wednesday (Oct. 5), as well as two telecom satellites for Intelsat on Thursday (Oct. 6). Three more missions are scheduled for Thursday (Oct. 6), including a Rocket Lab launch that will place a satellite developed by the energy and technology business General Atomics in orbit.