Atlas V and LDCM are Readied for Launch
Video from the channel NASA's Kennedy Space Center about Atlas (familia), linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 4:10. Language: English. Video type: News.
In the launch coverage, NASA commentator George Diller interviews Bruce Reid, mission manager for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) at the Launch Services Program, who explains how the Atlas V and the satellite were prepared.
The satellite had its own requirements: 60 consecutive minutes of sunlight after separation and very low spin rates at separation. That is why the trajectory was designed to meet them, and the launch vehicle performs a trim maneuver just before releasing it. The footage shows the first stage being moved to the pad in October and raised to vertical, with its twin-nozzle RD-180 engine. Next comes the Centaur cryogenic stage, with RL-10 engines, and the payload encapsulated at Astrotech, which arrived on January 25 at Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg.
With the payload already mated atop the Centaur, the stack is ready for launch.