ORLANDO, Fla. — The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket successfully launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Friday evening while carrying a missile warning satellite among its payloads for the U.S. Space Force.
The rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 shortly after 7 p.m., after being delayed on Thursday due to bad weather.
On board was two satellite payloads including the Wide Field of View (WFOV) Testbed developed by L3 Harris based on a Millennium Space Systems platform to be used for tracking missile threats. Also on board is the Space Test Program’s USSF-12 Ring spacecraft, built by Northrop Grumman, which itself will be hosting classified payloads. Both the WFOV and Ring spacecraft are headed for geosynchronous orbit approximately 22,000 miles above the equator.
