At 0010 GMT on 17 September 2014, an Atlas V 401 launch vehicle, operated by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), lifted off from its launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida, USA, on its way to deliver a satellite payload dubbed CLIO to orbit. According to spaceflight analyst Jonathan McDowell, the spacecraft used a Lockheed Martin A2100 bus design and was placed into a high-perigee Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) on its way to its final geostationary operating position. The mysterious spacecraft is thought to be a signals intelligence spacecraft or possibly communications satellite. The ownership of the spacecraft has not been identified except to note that it was for an unnamed US Government agency.
Mysterious spacecraft CLIO is launched by Atlas V 401 rocket
About Seradata
Seradata produce the renowned SpaceTrak Launch & Satellite Database. Trusted by 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, SpaceTrak is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).
For more information go to www.seradata.com/spacetrak
Related Articles
The USSF (United States Space Force) Space Systems Command has formally allocated the eight launches from the previous National Security Read more
As part of the ramp-up towards the launching of its Kuiper mega-constellation, Amazon placed what is believed to be the Read more
During the Satellite 2022 conference we were provided with plans for this year from some American launch providers. Rocket Read more
On 21 February, Russia’s President Putin ordered troops and tanks into disputed territories of Donetsk and Luhansk for “peacekeeping”, which Read more
A ULA operated Atlas V 551 rocket successfully launched the US Space Force STP 3 mission which involved the STPSAT-6 Read more
An Atlas V rocket from ULA (United Launch Alliance) has launched a Lockheed Martin-built, NASA Discovery-class spacecraft into orbit. Lift-off Read more
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket has carried the NASA Landsat 9 (and four co-payloads) into low Earth Read more
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched the SBIRS GEO-5, TDO 3 and TDO 4 satellites into a GTO orbit Read more