They scrubbed yesterday, but they're going to attempt to launch those evil spy satellites to watch over innocent Iranian peace ships again today at 11:04 AM EDT.

The sky is clear right now, and if it's like this in three hours, I'll have a good view. But if it's anything like yesterday, by 11 the sky will have clouded up. Of course, they've been warning us for the last two days about heavy afternoon thunderstorms that never arrived. Anyway, we'll see, won't we?

[Update at 9:50 AM EDT]

It had clouded up to the north earlier, but now they've cleared, and an hour and a quarter before scheduled launch, it's looking good if it holds up. The Cape is north-northwest of me, and I have a pretty good view of that direction from my yard, at least once it gets to altitude.

[Update about an hour before scheduled launch]

I just got a text message from Florida Today that range issues are once again threatening the launch.

We really need to break out of this antiquated "range" paradigm, but it will take radically new vehicle designs to do so.

[Update about 10:30]

Looks like they resolved the range issue, and are go for launch in a little over half an hour. Skies to the north still clear.

[Update about five minutes until original launch schedule]

It's always something. Now there's an eight-minute delay due to a technical glitch. Listening to USA ground chatter, it sounds like a problem with a propellant fill/drain valve on the Centaur (the upper stage). New launch time: 11:12 AM. Polling at 11:05 (in about five minutes).

[Update after launch]

Well, it seems to have gone successfully, but I couldn't see a thing. I wonder if the Atlas just burns too cleanly to be seen from a distance in the daylight?

[Update just after first Centaur burn]

I see over that The Flame Trench that they're pointing out that this week is the fiftieth anniversary of the first Atlas launch. It's not as significant as it seems. There's almost nothing in common between this vehicle and that first ICBM except the name, and the fact that it's an expendable rocket. Different fuel, different engines, different type of structure, different everything. It's really an all-new design that came out of the EELV program.

[Update in the afternoon]

As noted in comments, it doesn't use a different fuel. I was thinking Delta 4 when I wrote that, not Atlas V.

We really need to break out of this antiquated "range" paradigm, but it will take radically new vehicle designs to do so.

I agree except before people will invest serious money in radical new vehicle designs markets will need to be established and proven.

As for today, doing arbitrage and buying cheap Russian lift to LEO; Bigelow-esque habitats; and Armadillo-esque lunar landers gives the private sector the best shot at getting onto the Moon (before NASA?), and thus creating a market to stimulate the investment needed to build those radical new vehicles.

Neither NASA nor the US Congress will fund or build radical new vehicles unless someone shakes up the landscape. And maybe not even then.

Neither NASA nor the US Congress will fund or build radical new vehicles unless someone shakes up the landscape.

I don't expect them to (though I think that the Air Force may end up getting money from Congress for it). Fortunately, other people are.

Different fuel?

Different fuel?

No. Brain flatulence.

"I see over that The Flame Trench that they're pointing out that this week is the fiftieth anniversary of the first Atlas launch. It's not as significant as it seems. There's almost nothing in common between this vehicle and that first ICBM except the name, and the fact that it's an expendable rocket. Different fuel, different engines, different type of structure, different everything."

The centaur is still utilizes a steel baloon structure just like Mr. Bossart designed back in the 1950's. The tank is still made in San Diego also.

The Centaur isn't the Atlas, and it was just a gleam in Krafft Ehricke's (and others') eye (if that) in 1957. It's the upper stage, and has flown on other launch vehicles (and was at one time planned to be flown in the Shuttle).

Rand, it's also worth pointing out that the first Atlas was blown up by range safety. If you don't want to jinx the launch, you'd be better off celebrating the anniversary in December.