spacetoday.net: Atlas launches X-37B on fourth mission

Atlas launches X-37B on fourth mission

Posted: Thu, May 21, 2015, 8:50 PM ET (0050 GMT)
Atlas 5 launch of X-37B on 4th mission, May 2015 (ULA)

An Atlas 5 placed the Air Force's X-37B and a number of smallsat secondary payloads into orbit on Wednesday. The Atlas 5 501 lifted off at 11:05 am EDT (1505 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at the beginning of a ten-minute launch window. The rocket's primary payload on a mission designated AFSPC-5 was the X-37B spaceplane, beginning the vehicle's fourth mission in Earth orbit. The Air Force has disclosed few details about the X-37's mission, beyond it carrying some technology demonstration payloads, including materials science experiments for NASA. The ten secondary payloads on the Atlas 5 included LightSail, a cubesat developed by The Planetary Society that will deploy a small solar sail in orbit next month.