Atlas 5 rocket launches two Space Force satellites for tests of advanced technology
CBSN
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket boosted two Space Force satellites into orbit Tuesday in a billion-dollar mission featuring a variety of high-technology payloads, including nuclear detonation detectors and a NASA high-speed laser communications system.
Also on board was a joint NASA-U.S. Naval Research Laboratory ultraviolet telescope to help scientists learn how to predict solar storms that release torrents of charged particles that can damage spacecraft electronics and expose astronauts to high levels of radiation.
Powered by a Russian RD-180 first stage engine and five strap-on solid-propellant boosters, the Atlas 5 roared to life at 5:17 a.m. EST and vaulted away from pad 409 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station atop a brilliant jet of flaming exhaust.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.