Jul 17 2003
From The Space Library
An Atlas 5 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:45 p.m. (UT), carrying the Rainbow 1 satellite into orbit. The 4.3-tonne (4.7-ton or 4,300-kilogram) Cablevision Systems Corporation satellite would provide direct-to-home television services in the contiguous United States. The Atlas 5, on its third flight since its inaugural flight in August 2002, carried for the first time two 64-foot (19.5-meter), Aerojet-built solid rocket boosters, which enabled the rocket to clear the launchpad in just 7 seconds~ only half of the time required in the two previous launches. The launch marked the completion of flight-testing of all major new systems in the Atlas line. The U.S. military had designed Atlas 5 under its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Program.(Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 597; Associated Press, “Most Powerful Atlas Rocket Carries Cablevision Satellite into Space,” 18 July 2003.
NASA issued new safety standards for future space vehicles, such as the proposed Orbital Space Plane (OSP) and next-generation launch systems, requiring crew-escape systems and methods of aborting launches. Earlier, NASA had rejected recommendations for the proposed systems as too impractical or expensive for the existing Space Shuttle fleet. The new standards represented NASA's effort to provide “maximum reasonable assurance” that, in the future, mission failures would not automatically endanger the crew. The standards, known as the Human-Rating Requirements and Guidelines for Space Flight Systems, stipulated that NASA would design future spacecraft to allow the crew to escape quickly during prelaunch procedures and to abort the mission or to effect an emergency escape during ascent. (Eric Pianin, “New Standards Are Issued for Space Vehicle Safety,” Washington Post, 18 July 2003.
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