United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) venerable Atlas V rocket flew its final national security mission on Tuesday morning (July 30).
of Atlas V Launched from Florida Canaveral Space Station On Tuesday at 6:45 a.m. EDT (10:45 a.m. GMT), United States Space Force It’s called USSF-51.
USSF-51 was a landmark mission: it was the final national security space launch (NSSL) for a member of the Atlas rocket family, which has been flying since 1957. (It was also ULA’s 100th national security mission overall, according to ULA.)
Related: Facts about ULA’s Atlas V flagship rocket
“The Space Force’s Atlas V team has an impressive track record serving national security space transportation needs,” Col. Jim Horn, senior materiel leader for Launch Execution Delta, a division of the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC), said in an emailed statement on Friday (July 25).
“We’ve always worked extremely well with this team and this final Atlas V mission is shaping up to be a fantastic one!” Horn added.
The Atlas V debuted in 2002 and has flown 100 missions to date. Last month was a notable milestone for the 100th launch, which Boeing Starliner Capsule Towards International Space Station Two National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Astronauts were on board, marking the first manned flight for both the Atlas V and Starliner.
The workhorse rocket first flew on a U.S. national security mission in 2007 and performed more than 50 similar flights over the next few years.
“The Atlas V launch system has been the national security launch workhorse for the past two decades,” USSF-51 mission director Walt Lauderdale said in the same statement. “This mission, along with all previous ones, demonstrates the determination of the Atlas V integrated government-industry team to safely deliver critical assets to space.”
Though it will no longer be performing national security missions after Tuesday, the Atlas V isn’t ready to be retired just yet. It has 15 more launches scheduled, most of which will launch Starliner or satellites for Amazon’s planned Project Kuiper broadband constellation.
Meanwhile, the Space Force is looking into ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur The NSSL rocket will launch after the vehicle is certified. (Vulcan previously launched Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander in January this year.) The launch was successfulHowever, Peregrine ran into problems soon after it was deployed into space. I didn’t reach the moon As scheduled.)
Very little is known about the payload that will be flown on USSF-51, which is not surprising given that this is a classified national security mission.
