On a warm and shimmery* morning on one of the first days of summer here on the Space Coast, United Launch Alliance rolled Atlas V and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner “Calypso” from ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility to the launch mount at Pad SLC-41.
The Mobile Launch Platform’s one-third-of-a-mile rail journey north began shortly after 10 AM EDT. The entire unit — MLP, Atlas V and associated equipment — weighs about 1.6 Million Pounds and took around an hour to make the journey.
*shimmer: when air with different densities mix, it creates a blurry effect sometimes called shimmer. This is especially pronounced when cooler ocean air mixes with warmer air over land (or vice versa). It is the same effect as a mirage.
