Weather Forecast 80% Favorable for ULA Atlas V Rocket Launch Tuesday Morning From Cape Canaveral

By  //  December 6, 2021

two-hour launch window opens at 4:04 a.m. EST

ABOVE VIDEO: Watch live on Tues. Dec. 7, 2021 as ULA’s Atlas V rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with the Space Test Program (STP)-3 mission for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC).

(NASA) – NASA is taking a step toward the next era of space communications with the launch of its Laser Communications Relay Demonstration on Tuesday, Dec. 7 as part of the United States Space Force Space Systems Command’s Space Test Program 3 (STP-3) mission.

STP-3 will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Its two-hour launch window opens at 4:04 a.m. EST.

Live coverage of the launch is scheduled to air on Space Coast Daily TV the agency’s website, and the NASA App beginning at 3:30 a.m. EST.

The 45th Weather Squadron launch forecast shows conditions are 80-percent favorable for Tuesday’s rocket launch. The primary concern for the launch team is thick clouds in the area during the targeted launch window.

Laser communications – also called optical communications because they use light to send information – offer higher data rates than traditional radio frequency systems, enabling more data to be transmitted with each transmission.

NASA is taking a step toward the next era of space communications with the launch of its Laser Communications Relay Demonstration on Sunday, Dec. 5 as part of the United States Space Force Space Systems Command’s Space Test Program 3 (STP-3) mission. (NASA image)

LCRD will demonstrate space-to-ground laser communications linking ground stations in Hawaii and California. Later in the mission, LCRD will receive and transmit data from an optical terminal that NASA will place on the International Space Station.

Dive Deep into Laser Communications

Take an inside look into the development of LCRD with a laser communications show from NASA EDGE.

NASA’s The Invisible Network podcast will debut a special LCRD series on launch day, with additional episodes released over the following four Wednesdays.

STP-3 will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Its two-hour launch window opens at 4:04 a.m. EST. (ULA Image)

The podcast will highlight the future of the laser communications technologies demonstrated by this mission and the people behind it.

NASA’s LCRD is launching aboard the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program Satellite-6 (STPSat-6), which is part of the Space Test Program 3 mission.

An additional NASA science payload also will launch aboard STPSat-6: UVSC Pathfinder, the Ultraviolet Spectro-Coronagraph Pathfinder.

The mission is a joint NASA-U.S. Naval Research Laboratory experiment that studies the origins of solar energetic particles, the Sun’s most dangerous form of radiation.

LCRD is led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Partners include NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

LCRD is funded through NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions program as part of the Space Technology Mission Directorate, and the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

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