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Atlas SLV-3C Centaur | ATS 5

ATS 5

Launch Successful

Launch Details

Date: 12 Aug 1969, 11:01 am UTC

Rocket: Atlas SLV-3C Centaur (Atlas)

Provider: United States Air Force

Mission

Type: Earth Science

Orbit: Geosynchronous Orbit

Pad: Launch Complex 36A, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Mission Description

ATS-5, the last spacecraft in the Hughes/NASA ATS program, was launched August 12, 1969, in a near-perfect trajectory for insertion into synchronous orbit. Although injected successfully into orbit, the spacecraft's reverse spin (counterclockwise) prevented successful deployment of the 124 foot gravity gradient booms for the stabilization experiment. However nine of the other 13 experiments aboard the spacecraft returned useful data.