Vandenberg Air Force Base is scheduled to launch an Atlas V rocket carrying a NASA payload between 10:02 a.m. and 10:50 a.m. next Monday. The 200-foot-tall rocket is completely assembled and ready to go, said a base spokesperson, while final tweaks are still being made to the NASA satellite. A part of the agency’s 41-year-old Landsat series, the observation satellite will add to the longest continuous data record of Earth’s surface as viewed from space. It will cruise in polar orbit and circle the globe about 14 times from an altitude of 438 miles.
