An Atlas V rocket roared off the launch pad Tuesday afternoon from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying an advanced weather satellite high above the Earth.
The rocket successfully lifted off at 4:38 p.m. out of Space Launch Complex 41 blazing a fiery tail through mostly clear and blue skies and marking the second ULA Atlas launch of the year, the 149th flight in United Launch Alliance history and the 92nd overall for that company’s workhorse rocket.
The payload atop the 196-foot tall rocket was the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-T — the culmination of multiple organizations laboring over the next generation of weather predictions.
