Orbital ATK is scheduled Monday to launch a Pegasus rocket aboard the company’s Stargazer L-1011 airplane to transport a NASA satellite system designed for weather research.
NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System will lift off Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 8:24 a.m. Eastern time as part of the space agency’s effort to study tropical cyclones and help meteorologists predict the path of a hurricane, Orbital ATK said Sunday.
Pegasus is a Category 3 certified rocket under NASA’s Launch Services Program.
Orbital ATK said the Launch Services Program, responsible for matching spacecraft with launch vehicles, authorized the rocket’s first launch from Cape Canaveral in 13 years.
Previous Pegasus missions launched from six separate locations in the U.S., Europe and the Marshall Islands.