The launch, set for August of next year, will make Lockheed Martin's Athena vehicles the most flexible space booster available to small customers, with launching options from Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg, Wallops Island, Virginia, and now Alaska.

The mission will launch the NASA Vegetation Canopy Lidar satellite using an Athena I variant, the smallest vehicle in the Athena fleet. Launch target is a 261 mile high orbit inclined 67 degrees to the Equator.

The satellite, which will be the sole payload on the launcher, weighs just 954 pounds. The mission marks the third use of an Athena bird by a NASA customer.

Previous missions for Athena 1 include the Lunar Prospector and the failed Lewis spacecraft. Its companion satellite, Clark, was also set for an Athena launch before NASA killed the project. It is the Clark Athena rocket that will be used in the VCL mission.

Athena Program

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Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India
Calcutta, India (SPX) Dec 28, 2005
The successful launch Thursday of India's heaviest satellite from spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana may have boosted the country's space research efforts to yet another level, but it has also lifted the spirits of at least three Direct-To-Home televisions broadcasters, one of which has been waiting for years to launch its services in India.