2012 KSC planned launches

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
 
Citing a busy 2012 launch schedule, the director of Florida’s storied rocket range said Tuesday that’s proof there is life after NASA’s shuttle program.
 
“We are alive and well, and we are in business here in Central Florida,” said Brig. Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of the Air Force 45th Space Wing and director of the Eastern Range, the nation’s prime rocket-launching region.
 
A dozen launches are scheduled from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the coming months, including missions that are critical to the International Space Station as well as U.S. troops operating in theaters around the world.
 
“So folks, we are busy,” Cotton told members of the National Space Club Florida Committee at a luncheon in Cape Canaveral. “With the exception of the month of March, there is something going on at the Cape throughout the year.”
 
First up this year: The Jan. 19 launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket with a new-generation military communications satellite. The launch window that night will extend from 7:38 to 9:11 p.m.
 
Targeted for a Feb. 7 launch: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon spacecraft. The misson: to demonstrate Dragon spacecraft can safely and reliably deliver cargo to the International Space Station.
 
The following week, on Feb. 16, an Atlas V rocket is scheduled to launch with a communications satellite that will provide the Navy with a space-based 3G network.
 
Another advanced military communications satellite is aiming for a launch in late April. Two top-secret National Reconnaissance Office payloads will be lofted this summer. A SpaceX Falcon 9 is targeting launch on an International Space Station supply run in July. A NASA science satellite is to be launched in August, followed by a Global Positioning System spacecraft in September.
 
The third flight of the military’s unmanned mini-shuttle — the X-37 — will start in October, and a NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite is slated for launch at the end of the year.
 
The number of scheduled 2012 launches would top by one the number of missions launched in 2011. The year 2011 included 4 Atlas V launches, the final three NASA shuttle flights, two Delta IV missions and the final launch of a Delta II rocket from the Cape.
 
Space