The last Atlas IIIB rocket--the final ever Atlas-Centaur, pushes its way toward history as it carries a pair of Intruder ocean surveillance spacecraft (NROL-23) into low earth orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office's ELINT operations, as part of the Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS).

Following this launch, the structurally-stable Atlas V remains the sole launcher remaining in the Atlas family of rockets, after the final balloon-tank Atlas booster dropped into the North Atlantic.

This launch also marked the end of Atlas operations for LC-36B, as a year earlier, LC-36A saw its last ever Atlas launch ([ Ссылка ]).

Hours before this historic launch, however, a Proton-M rocket carried the AMC-12 communications satellite into GTO.
CCI ver.: [ Ссылка ]
KhSC ver.: [ Ссылка ]


video: ILS, CCI, Lockheed Martin
Excerpt from [ Ссылка ]

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