Atlas V Wet Dress Links

The AV-010 wet dress rehearsal for the Pluto New Horizons
missions is underway at Cape Canaveral today, 12/5/05.
Here is a link for those who would like to follow along.

"http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/elv/public/"

This Atlas with its solid upper stage will be the hottest
space hotrod in history - the fastest machine ever built.

- Ed Kyle

"Ed Kyle" wrote in news:1133798014.829125.110440
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

The AV-010 wet dress rehearsal for the Pluto New Horizons
missions is underway at Cape Canaveral today, 12/5/05.
Here is a link for those who would like to follow along.

"http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/elv/public/"

This Atlas with its solid upper stage will be the hottest
space hotrod in history - the fastest machine ever built.

What will be the pad liftoff Gs? I imagine it will get
off the pad rather promptly, and will need the RD-180's
throttling capability to limit either G-loads or
aerodynamic loads fairly early in the flight profile.

--Damon

Damon Hill wrote:
"Ed Kyle" wrote in news:1133798014.829125.110440
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

The AV-010 wet dress rehearsal for the Pluto New Horizons
missions is underway at Cape Canaveral today, 12/5/05.
Here is a link for those who would like to follow along.

"http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/elv/public/"

This Atlas with its solid upper stage will be the hottest
space hotrod in history - the fastest machine ever built.

What will be the pad liftoff Gs? I imagine it will get
off the pad rather promptly, and will need the RD-180's
throttling capability to limit either G-loads or
aerodynamic loads fairly early in the flight profile.

--Damon

Thrust to Weight at liftoff looks to be in the 1.5-1.8 range,
but I don't have enough info to pin the number down. The
payload mass includes a Star 48B upper stage, bringing
the total to 2.6 tonnes, about 6 tonnes less than the
GTO payload mass that this rocket could carry. The
usual RD-180 thrust profile is full throttle until max Q,
but I suppose that could be varied if needed.

Maximum acceleration will occur shortly before first stage
cutoff, after fairing jettison, but the RD-180 is routinely
deep throttled then to limit acceleration to 4.6 g. The
engine also throttles down just before fairing sep.

New Horizons will exceed the Moon's orbital distance in
just nine hours.

- Ed Kyle

"Ed Kyle" wrote:

New Horizons will exceed the Moon's orbital distance in
just nine hours.

That is impressive.

In article ,
Alan Anderson wrote:
New Horizons will exceed the Moon's orbital distance in
just nine hours.

That is impressive.

It's only an hour faster than Voyager 1, and probably less than that
over Ulysses (which I don't have a number for).
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