Fairleads, which are tube supports along the side of the booster tank, were machined out of Fir, a type of wood governed by a Mil Spec. It takes the MLP about 30 minutes to roll the 1,800 feet from VIF to pad.Īs recently as the IIAS version, the Atlas vehicle contained structural parts made out of wood. The Atlas V mobile launch platform (MLP), which transports the rocket from the vertical integration facility (VIF) to the launch pad, weighs 1.34 million pounds.

To date, more than 220 separate spacecraft have been launched by the dependable Delta II.ĭelta II has nearly a 99 percent mission success rate in its 25-year history, dating back to its debut launch on Feb.

As the largest launch vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy can launch a satellite that’s the equivalent weight of a semi-truck (approximately 29,000 lbs.). An Atlas V or Delta IV can launch a satellite that’s the equivalent weight of a Humvee (approximately 6,500 lbs.). A flight from Denver to New York would only take 2 minutes and 16 seconds at that rate.Ī Delta II can launch a satellite that’s the equivalent weight of a Mercedes S500 sedan (approximately 4,200 lbs.). The spacecraft reached a top speed of 47,000 miles per hour. At this speed, it would only take 41 minutes and 44 seconds to go around the Earth’s Equator, which is 24,902 miles. In January of 2006, Atlas V set a new world record during the launch of the New Horizons mission, for the fastest spacecraft at time of leaving Earth’s atmosphere – more than 36,000 miles per hour. In 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit when an Atlas launched his Friendship 7 spacecraft. The race to the moon relied on the highly successful flights of Atlas. Together, Atlas and Delta rockets have launched more than 1,300 missions This is equivalent to the power generated by 13 Hoover Dams, carrying the weight of eight horses, and traveling at speeds 15 times faster than a speeding bullet! A typical rocket produces more than a million pounds of thrust that allows it to carry more than 6,000 pounds at speeds topping 22,000 miles per hour.

Interesting facts about the moon atlas