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A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket blasts off with the U.S. military’s SBIRS GEO 5 satellite. Credit: Alex Polimeni / Spaceflight Now
An upgraded, cyber-hardened $1 billion satellite to support the U.S. military’s missile defense systems rode into orbit from Cape Canaveral Tuesday at the tip of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.
Hosting a suite of sophisticated heat-seeking sensors, the Space Force’s fifth Space Based Infrared System, or SBIRS, satellite took off from pad 41 on Florida’s Space Coast on an Atlas 5 rocket at 1:37 p.m. EDT (1737 GMT) Tuesday.