Atlas V launch with SBIRS GEO-1 scrubbed due to weather
NASASpaceflight.com
by William Graham
May 7, 2011
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) have successfully made a second attempt to launch their Atlas V 401 – from Cape Canaveral on Saturday at 2:10pm EDT – following several failed attempts to find a gap in unacceptable weather during the 40 minute launch window on Friday – resulting in a 24 hour scrub turnaround. The Atlas V launched with the first in a new series of early warning satellites to detect missile launches. …
The satellite, SBIRS GEO-1, is the first dedicated spacecraft to be launched as part of the Space Based Infrared System, or SBIRS, although two sensor packages hosted on other satellites are already in orbit. SBIRS is a system of spacecraft which monitor the Earth using infrared sensors in order to detect and track missile launches. …
The need to detect missile launches dates back to the Cold War, when both the United States and the Soviet Union perceived a danger that the other could launch a surprise nuclear attack. In the mid 1950s, the United States began development of the first space-based missile detection system; the Missile Defense Alarm System or MIDAS, which used satellites in low Earth orbit equipped with infrared sensors to detect launches. …
www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/05/live-atlas-v-launch-with-sbirs-geo1/
Two SBIRS radomes were built at Menwith Hill in 1999.
