Idled by Range facility rework for months, Vandenberg ready to launch again Friday

Resuming space launches from the U.S. Western Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after a half-year infrastructure outage, an Atlas 5 rocket will boost a commercial Earth-imaging bird into orbit on Friday. Using the same United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 built and stacked on the pad for NASA’s now-delayed Mars InSight lander that was supposed to head for the Red Planet in March, the privately-owned and operated WorldView 4 spacecraft will ride the booster to a sun-synchronous polar orbit above Earth. Liftoff of the rocket, designated AV-062, is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. local (2:30 p.m. EDT; 1830 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 3-East on South Base. The available launch window extends 14 minutes. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Sep 15)