Atlas V launch lights up pre-dawn sky
Twitter and other social media platforms lit up early Thursday nearly as bright as the subject of the postings.
Shortly after the 6:13 a.m. launch of an Air Force communications satellite aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, curvy white streaks were evident across the sky from Central Florida to South Florida.
Sun Sentinel staff writer Wayne K. Roustan was able to (safely) capture video and still images while driving north on Interstate 75 through Weston just south of the I-595 interchange.
The distant white streak can be seen mixing with a thin layer of clouds, early morning traffic and the highway’s lighting system.
Many of the images were re-tweeted by social media and local digital news writer Joel Franco, @OfficalJoelF, with replies from some of his many of thousands of followers.
The $1.1 billion Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite marks the 80th Atlas V mission since the rocket’s inaugural launch in 2002. The satellites will ultimately replace the current set of MILSTAR satellites in orbit since the early 2000s. One satellite in the AEHF constellation will have more capacity than the entire set of MILSTAR satellites, according to the launching agency United Launch Alliance.
The airborne traffic reporter for WSVN-Ch. 7, Steven Jay Gray, indicated that pilots around Miami International Airport where asking air traffic controllers about the streak they were seeing in the early morning sky.
Another Air Force communication satellite, the sixth in the constellation, is scheduled for launch in March 2020.
Material from the Orlando Sentinel was used in this report.