Atlas V rocket launch today: NASA satellite ready for rendezvous with siblings

Update: LIFTOFF! The Atlas V rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:29 a.m. with NASA's newest communications satellite.

NASA's latest communications satellite will fly past the watchful gaze of its in-orbit siblings thanks to a boost from a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket scheduled to lift off from the Space Coast today.

The 8:03 a.m. attempt from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will take the agency's newest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, known as TDRS-M, to a 22,300-mile orbit to rendezvous with the rest of its constellation, which facilitates ground-to-space communications for a variety of spacecraft.

TDRS-K and TDRS-L, also launched on Atlas V rockets in 2013 and 2014, will observe and transmit telemetry as the youngest sibling lifts off on the 191-foot-tall rocket from Launch Complex 41 to favorable skies.

"We made a comment at the flight readiness review about what TDRS-M might think of that, knowing its two siblings were going to watch over seeing it come up," said Dave Littmann, TDRS-M project manager, during a news conference at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday. "That generated a little smile across the team."

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The Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron expects 80 percent "go" conditions during the 40-minute launch window on Friday, citing thick clouds as the only concern. A delay to Saturday would see similar weather conditions.

The constellation of Boeing-built satellites, which currently includes six fully functional spacecraft and one spare, have had a mostly behind-the-scenes role over the years – communications to and from the International Space Station and spectacular images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, for example, are all relayed through the TDRS network.

Friday's launch will take the last of the program's spacecraft to orbit, which likely won't need new relaying capability until around 2025, according to Badri Younes, NASA's deputy associate administrator for space communications and navigation.

"TDRS-M is going to be critical to our future operations and the future of our space network," Younes said during the news conference.

The $408 million satellite, however, hasn't been without challenges – it was damaged in mid-July when a crane made contact with it at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, pushing back the early August launch date.

"The antenna was damaged by bumping up against a piece of ground support equipment," said James Wilson III, Boeing program manager for NASA and civil space programs, on the incident.

Thanks to the availability of a spare, it was quickly replaced after an investigation that included Boeing, NASA and Astrotech.

"The antenna has been removed, replaced, and retested functioning nominally," Wilson said.

Known as the Omni S-Band antenna, the component will allow teams to communicate with the satellite while the larger, primary antennae are pointed away from the Earth during an eight-day ascent to geosynchronous orbit. After that, it will stand ready as a backup in the event of a malfunction.

Boeing will hand over operations of the satellite to NASA after several months of in-orbit testing, which should last until the first quarter of next year.

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TDRS-M, however, isn't the only notable thing about Friday's mission – the Space Coast hasn't seen an Atlas V since April when ULA launched an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft on a supply and science run to the ISS.

Atlas V, which will not feature any strap-on solid rocket motors, will take the 7,615-pound satellite orbit with the help of the company's Centaur upper stage. It will mark the 37th mission for an Atlas V rocket in this configuration and the rocket's 72nd overall.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook at @EmreKelly.

Launch Friday

• Rocket: United Launch Alliance Atlas V
• Mission: Launch of NASA's TDRS-M communications satellite
• Launch Time: 8:03 a.m.
• Launch Window: 40 minutes
• Launch Complex: 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
• Join floridatoday.com starting at 7:00 a.m. Friday for countdown chat and updates, including streaming of ULA's webcast.