In this twenty-second exposure, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches on the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program 3 (STP-3) mission from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission’s Space Test Program Satellite-6 (STPSat-6) spacecraft hosts NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) and the NASA-U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Ultraviolet Spectro-Coronagraph (UVSC) Pathfinder. Photo credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) mission has successfully launched, completed two Centaur engine burns, and is on its way! The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Space Test Program 3 (STP-3) mission sent two satellites including the Space Test Program Satellite-6 (STPSat-6) spacecraft, which hosted two NASA payloads – LCRD and the NASA-U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Ultraviolet Spectro-Coronagraph (UVSC) Pathfinder – to space. STPSat-6 is scheduled to separate from Centaur into geosynchronous orbit in about 6 hours.
