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The AEHF satellites can handle 10 times more data than the older Milstar relay stations they are replacing, feature extreme encryption and are designed to give "senior leadership a survivable line of communications to military forces in all levels of conflict, including nuclear war," ULA said in a brochure describing the mission. "So on a really bad day, you really want to have this system in place," he said.

"It's also the only system that survives through a near nuclear burst and can provide communications through environments that other comm systems could not. "This is the nation's only strategic and tactical protected comm satellite network," said Mike Cacheiro, Lockheed Martin’s AEHF program manager. The satellites are shared by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Two more are scheduled for launch in 20.īuilt by Lockheed Martin, the AEFH satellites are designed to provide a global network of secure, jam-proof communications for strategic command and control and for tactical missions around the world. On board thrusters will be used to circularize the orbit at 22,300 miles and to maneuver the AEHF-4 satellite into its final operational location, joining three other AEHF relay station's already in space. To reach that orbit, the Centaur engine was expected to fire three times, putting the satellite into an elliptical orbit with a high point of about 21,800 miles and a predicted low point of 5,500 miles. At that altitude, satellites take 24 hours to complete one orbit and thus appear stationary in the sky, allowing the use of fixed antennas on the ground. Perched atop the Centaur was the Pentagon's fourth Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite bound for a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator. At that point, a hydrogen-fueled Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10C engine in the rocket's Centaur second stage took over, continuing the climb to a preliminary orbit.

The strap-on boosters fell away about a little less than two minutes after liftoff and the first stage followed suit two-and-a-half minutes later. Putting on a dazzling sky show, the rocket quickly arced away to the east over the Atlantic Ocean trailing a long jet of rushing flame as it rapidly consumed propellants, lost weight and steadily accelerated out of the thick lower atmosphere. It was only the ninth flight of United Launch Alliance's most powerful "551" version of the Atlas 5, a variant that debuted in 2006 when it boosted NASA's New Horizons probe on a fast-track trajectory to Pluto. Generating a combined 2.6 million pounds of thrust, the powerful engine and side boosters quickly pushed the 197-foot-tall rocket away from pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, lighting up Florida's "Space Coast" for dozens of miles around. EDT (GMT-4) followed immediately by ignition of five Aerojet Rocketdyne solid-fuel strap-on boosters. The Atlas 5's Russian-built RD-180 first stage engine thundered to life with a brilliant jet of flame at 12:15 a.m. Lighting up the night sky, a high-power Atlas 5 rocket streaked away from Florida early Wednesday carrying a $1.8 billion military communications satellite built to withstand the most powerful jamming and even the effects of a nearby nuclear blast to ensure steady communications with troops around the world.