On June 18th at 21:32 (although 1/10 of 1 second late) both the LRO and LCROSS payloads were launched aboard an Atlas V Rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 41. This is from T-1 to MECO which is about 15 minutes. Check out the fairing separation, it is stunningly cool!


  1. Marcus says:
    June 19, 2009 at 1:49 pm

    Thanks for putting this up. The livestream wasn’t working for me yesterday. Audio was life, but video minutes behind, well after MECO I was still seeing Atlas 5 on the pad and trees waving in the wind…

    But now I was finally able to see this beautiful launch!

    Few remarks:
    - Why is it called MECO on the Centaur? Shouldn’t MECO be on the first stage (before separation) and SECO on the Centaur? Is ULA considering Centaur to be a vehicle of it’s own instead of “only” a second stage?
    - What’s so cool about the fairing separation? It is so short/fast in the video you hardly see anything. On the Falcon 1 launches you can see the two halves of the fairing falling down behind the rocket, that’s way more cooler than this! ;)

    Reply
    • cariann says:
      June 21, 2009 at 2:18 pm

      Hey Marcus!
      I can’t answer your first question… and your second question, I can only give you my opinion:
      Because this is the first rocket launch that I have seen in HD, I thought *everything* was way cooler looking! I did not expect to see the faring separation, so for me it was a bit of a surprise, if you will. From now on, I will look closer at the Falcon 1 launches… but I’m sure in HD… it’s just *THAT* much cooler!!

      Reply
    • Ripley says:
      August 31, 2009 at 5:35 pm

      Learn the NASA’s acronyms : MECO means Main Engine Cut-Off.

      Reply
  2. KaiYves says:
    June 19, 2009 at 9:02 pm

    The full lyrics of the song I was ‘singing’ in the chat bar, to be sung to the tune of “Copababana”:
    LCROSS Moon Mission (To the tune of “Copacabana”)

    Her name was LOLA, she was a spacecraft
    She caught a ride on LRO, in an Atlas Five, you know
    She took some photos and dropped impactors
    And so she took off for the moon, on a fine day in late June
    Launch Complex For-ty One, they took off in the sun
    They were young and they were flying, who could ask for more?

    At the LCROSS, LCROSS Moon Mission
    The thing that our Ben and Cari are dishin’
    At the LCROSS, LCROSS Moon Mission
    Science and passion are always the fashion at the LCROSS…
    Come fall in love

    His name was CRaTER, he was a sensor
    He looked out for cosmic rays, on those quiet lunar days
    And when he finished, they dropped a Centaur
    Dust and ice went out so far, you could catch it in a jar
    And the tel-es-copes looked, they wrote it up in books
    There was laughing and much rejoicing
    When the ice! Showed! Through!

    At the LCROSS, LCROSS Moon Mission
    The thing that our Ben and Cari are dishin’
    At the LCROSS, LCROSS Moon Mission
    Science and passion are always the fashion at the LCROSS…
    Come fall in love

    (Instrumental)

    Her name was LOLA, she was a spacecraft…
    Just like 40 years ago, when Apollo was the show…
    Now we are happy, we’re goin’ back there
    And stickin’ feathers in our hair and sendin’ rockets way up there.
    We sit here so refined, ex-cite-ment in our minds.
    ‘Cause the beauty of those pictures
    Could make you! Go! Blind!

    At the LCROSS, LCROSS Moon Mission…
    The thing that our Ben and Cari are dishin’.
    At the LCROSS, LCROSS Moon Mission
    Science and passion are always the fashion at the LCROSS…
    Come fall in love.

    Reply