Preview: Navy craft to ride milestone Atlas-Centaur launching

The 200th Atlas-Centaur rocket, history some 52 years in the making, will blast off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral to deliver a U.S. Navy mobile communications satellite into orbit. It is the most-powerful United Launch Alliance Atlas-Centaur configuration available, the 551 varient that will feature five strap-on solid-fuel boosters. Liftoff is targeted for 7:43 p.m. EST at the opening of a 44-minute window. First paired in 1962 for AC-1, the Atlas booster and the NASA-developed Centaur was the high-energy answer to unlock a pathway to the planets. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jan 19)