On March 26th, the US Space Force was scheduled to launch in orbit for the first time in a while. According to Ars Technica, the mission’s purpose is sending the orbit a military communication satellite.
The spacecraft was launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 3 p.m. EST launch. The mission still went according to plan, unlike some other launches in space from NASA that have been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The launch was streamed in real-time and people can access it by typing the name of the satellite on YouTube, Atlas V AEHF-6. Even though the launch proceeded as planned, some of the parts of the mission were altered by the ongoing pandemic. For example, the U.S. Space Force has scheduled to host a military event with fanfare around the rocket at its launch. This would have also been streamed live, but unfortunately, it was canceled.
The US Space Force manages to renew the military force network
The success of this mission would automatically imply a new set of communication satellites added to the United States Space Force. Additionally, the primary purpose of the task is replacing the old, outdated network the military force has been using in the past decades.
The constellation of the new satellites will consist of six spacecraft, with five of them being already in place. The military started this whole process back in 2010. Ever since then, some of the satellites have not been functioning, waiting for the group to be complete.
After an unseen problem regarding the support equipment, The Atlas V AEHF-6 rocket was launched into space, 30 minutes later than scheduled. The first time that the US Space Force was directing a flight into space was a complete success. The cost of each satellite from the constellation of six was no more than 850 million USD for each piece.
