CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – One thing Americans love is seeing a rocket blast to the heavens right from our coast.
To reach new heights when launches once again carry NASA astronauts, the Atlas Five is the rocket that will launch Boeing’s CTS-100 Starliner to the International Space Station.
“The Atlas is a very proven vehicle,” said Dane Drefke of the United Launch Alliance. “It’s flown 74 times with 100 percent success. The Atlas vehicle is what originally flew John Glenn.”
Drefke said crew safety is a priority and several upgrades have been made to Space Launch Complex 41.
The astronauts will enter the vehicle via a 200-foot-tall elevator in the crew’s access tower.
“That was constructed solely for the astronauts,” Drefke said. “That’s to put them into the capsule just before liftofff. There’s an emergency escape system on that tower where we can safely get them off the pad.”
When ULA launches a crew to the ISS, not only will it be launching into history, it will also be launching from a historic site.
Both Voyagers 1 and 2 launched in 1977, and the program is still sending back data from outside our solar system, the farthest any man-made object has traveled. It’s also where moon missions and space shuttles launched.
“One thing I’ve said in the past, and it’s very true, rockets are very unforgiving,” Drefke said. “You get one chance to get it right. Once you turn it on, you can’t turn it off.”