One at a time, ULA reaches 100th launch Friday
- Rocket: United Launch Alliance Atlas V (421 configuration)
- Mission: Mexico's Morelos-3 communications satellite
- Launch time: 6:08 a.m. (20-minute window)
- Weather: 70 percent "go"
Friday's planned 6:08 a.m. launch of an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will be United Launch Alliance's 100th mission since the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture was formed nearly nine years ago.
A celebration befitting the milestone surely will follow a successful launch of the Mexican government's Morelos-3 communications satellite during a 20-minute window at Launch Complex 41.
But until the spacecraft is deployed in orbit a few hours after liftoff, you won't catch ULA publicly reflecting on the century mark.
The company is repeating its usual "one mission at a time" mantra, as if it hasn't noticed the triple-digit achievement at hand.
"From ULA's point of view, every single one of them is important," said Tony Soto, spacecraft integrator for the upcoming launch. "It's not diminished in our eyes, whether it's the 99th or 101st or 102nd — they're all important, and especially so to the (spacecraft) owners."
After failure, Mexico counting on Atlas V to deliver satellite
No argument there from the owners of No. 100, Mexico's Ministry of Communications and Transportation, which is rebounding from the loss in May of a satellite during a failed Proton rocket launch from Kazakhstan.
That was the second of three spacecraft intended for the more than $1 billion Mexsat constellation supporting five national security agencies and providing Internet access to public buildings in remote parts of the country.
Omar Charfen, the Mexsat program manager, said it would be a "tragedy" to lose the third Mexsat satellite, named Morelos-3.
Fortunately, the Atlas V has an impressive record heading into its 57th flight, with only one partial failure back in 2007 when an upper stage engine cut off seconds early.
The Mexsat team doesn't mind being ULA's 100th launch, figuring the mission might receive even more attention than usual, notwithstanding ULA's pledge to treat each mission the same.
For Soto, a 53-year-old Cocoa resident, the Morelos-3 mission presented "a happy coincidence" having nothing to do with its number.
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Crew tower rising at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 41
He was born in Mexico City, home of the government satellite team he has been supporting for the past year. He remembers watching the first Apollo moon landing on a black and white TV in his parents' bedroom there.
The family ultimately settled in South Florida. Upon graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 1986, Soto followed his American father's footsteps into the airline industry at Eastern Airlines.
Tough times at Eastern led him to pursue a job with Lockheed a year later on the shuttle program at Kennedy Space Center, which was then rebounding from the Challenger disaster.
Work on Athena and Atlas rockets followed, and Soto is now nearing 30 years in the launch business he initially considered a "consolation prize" after the airline aviation industry didn't pan out.
In addition to this mission's Mexican connection, Soto has enjoyed working on a rare commercial launch for ULA. Commercial missions have different responsibilities and often a faster pace than the U.S. government launches that have been ULA's bread and butter since its formation in December 2006.
ULA hopes to grow more competitive in the commercial launch market as it develops a new, lower-cost rocket called Vulcan, which could fly for the first time in 2019. The company plans to gradually phase out its current fleet of Atlas V and Delta IV rockets.
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"This is a good transition," said Soto. "Everything about ULA is changing: our products, the company's structure, and we're trying to re-enter the commercial marketplace more aggressively."
As spacecraft integrator, Soto helped see the roughly 13,000-pound, Boeing-built Morelos-3 communications satellite through to its placement atop the 20-story Atlas V last week, and worked closely with the Mexsat team.
Soon he'll transition to another commercial launch reflecting the next big change taking place at ULA.
He'll work with Boeing to prepare its first CST-100 Starliner capsule for an unmanned test flight targeted for mid-2017, hopefully setting the stage for crew launches from the Space Coast later that year.
In recent weeks, ULA has started stacking the access tower astronauts will use to board those flights. The Morelos-3 mission will be the first lifting off from Launch Complex 41 with the tower partially constructed, having five of seven tiers in place.
"It's a transformation of the pad, just like transforming the company, transforming the product line, transforming everything," said Soto."It's a visual example of that. We're now entering a completely different business that we previously were not in."
Mission managers on Wednesday gave a "go" for Morelos-3 to proceed toward its early Friday launch, and the rocket is scheduled to roll to the pad late Thursday afternoon. The mission is the first of what could be three Atlas V launches in October alone, including one from California next week.
But who's counting?
"They all get the same high level of attention," said Soto. "You can't have a winning streak without having every last one of them be successful."
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean @ floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at@ flatoday _ jdean and on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace
Launch Friday
Rocket: United Launch Alliance Atlas V (421 configuration)
Mission: Mexico's Morelos-3 communications satellite
Launch time: 6:08 a.m.
Launch window: 20 minutes, to 6:28 a.m.
Launch complex: 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Weather: 70 percent "go"
Join floridatoday.com at 5 a.m. Friday for live countdown updates and chat about the mission, plus streaming of ULA's launch Webcast beginning 20 minutes before liftoff.