{"id":373541,"date":"2026-04-03T20:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/373541\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T20:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:35:12","slug":"watch-atlas-v-rocket-launch-its-heaviest-ever-payload-early-on-april-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/373541\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Atlas V rocket launch its heaviest-ever payload early on April 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rocket Launch: Amazon Leo 5 – YouTube
\n\"Rocket<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket will launch its heaviest-ever payload on Saturday morning (April 4), and you can watch the action live.<\/p>\n

The Atlas V<\/a> is scheduled to lift off Saturday at 1:45 a.m. EDT (0545 GMT) from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station<\/a>, carrying 29 satellites for the Amazon Leo broadband constellation to orbit. Together, those spacecraft weigh 18 tons, according to ULA.<\/p>\n

You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of ULA, or directly via the company<\/a>. Coverage will begin 20 minutes before launch.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

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\"a\n<\/p>\n

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches 27 Amazon Leo internet satellites on Dec. 16, 2025. (Image credit: ULA)<\/p>\n

The Amazon Leo megaconstellation, previously known as Project Kuiper, will eventually consist of about 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit<\/a>. It’s Amazon’s answer to SpaceX’s Starlink<\/a> network, which beams internet service down from more than 10,000 satellites (and counting).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Amazon Leo is still in its early stages; just 212 of the spacecraft have reached orbit to date over the course of eight launches (not counting a 2023 liftoff that sent up two prototype satellites).<\/p>\n

The Atlas V has flown four of those operational missions. Three employed SpaceX<\/a>‘s Falcon 9, and the other one used Arianespace’s Ariane 6<\/a> heavy lifter.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s launch, which Amazon calls LA-05, will be the first Atlas V mission to loft 29 Amazon Leo satellites; the others carried 27 of the spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n

“The increase is a result of detailed engineering work between Amazon Leo and ULA, and is made possible by a new, higher-performing version of the RL10C engine used on the rocket’s Centaur upper stage,” Amazon representatives wrote in a mission description<\/a>. “While the engine has flown on previous missions, LA-05 marks the first time the program has completed the extensive engineering and safety analysis required to use it with our larger payload.”<\/p>\n

And that payload is larger in a significant way, according to the LA-05 mission description: “With 29 satellites aboard, LA-05 will mark the heaviest payload ever flown on an Atlas V.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rocket Launch: Amazon Leo 5 – YouTube Watch On A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-373541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}