Atlas V with TDRS-M Rolled to Launch Pad

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket rolls out of the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on its way to Space Launch Complex 41. The rocket will send NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, TDRS-M to orbit. TDRS-M is the latest spacecraft destined for the agency’s constellation of communications satellites that allows nearly continuous contact with orbiting spacecraft ranging from the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope to the array of scientific observatories. Liftoff atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is scheduled to take place from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:03 a.m. EDT Aug. 18.

Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett