Space Test Program-3 Takes To The Skies

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station – Liftoff! This morning, December 7, 2021, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket and the Space Test Program-3 (STP-3) mission lit up the early morning skies along Florida’s Space Coast. The launch of the most powerful Atlas V rocket variant carried the STP-3 spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command into orbit.  

The STP-3 satellite, built by Northrop Grumman, is the primary payload. It was joined on this luanch by rideshare spacecraft called Long Duration Propulsive Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). Originally scheduled for 4:04am EST, a delay in the countdown due to upper level winds pushed the launch to 5:19am EST.