On Tuesday morning, July 30, United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) iconic Atlas V rocket conducted its last national security mission.
On Tuesday at 6:45 a.m. EDT (1045 GMT), the Atlas V lifted off from Florida’s Canaveral Space Force Station to begin a classified mission known as USSF-51 for the U.S. Space Force.
On the far left, a rocket takes off into the early morning sky, leaving a foggy trail in its wake. Some buildings can be made out in the distance.
USSF-51 is a historic mission because it was the final Atlas rocket family member to launch from national security space (NSSL) since 1957.
Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader for Launch Execution Delta, inside the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC), said via email on Friday, July 25, that “the Space Force Atlas V team has an amazing record of serving our National Security Space lift needs.”
“We have always worked extremely well with this team, and this mission, our last launch with the Atlas V, is looking great!” Horne continued.
Since its 2002 launch, the Atlas V has completed 100 flights. Last month saw a historic 100th launch, carrying two NASA astronauts on board Boeing’s Starliner capsule as it headed toward the International Space Station. It was Starliner’s and Atlas V’s first crewed flight.
The workhorse rocket completed more than 50 additional similar flights over the years after completing its initial US national security mission in 2007.
Walt Lauderdale, the director of the USSF-51 mission, stated in the same statement that “for the past 20 years, the Atlas V launch system has been the stalwart for national security launches.” “This mission, together with all those preceding, demonstrates the Atlas V integrated government/industry team’s commitment to safely deliver critical assets to space.”
The Atlas V isn’t quite ready for retirement, even though it won’t be conducting any more missions related to national security after Tuesday. There are still fifteen more launches scheduled for it, the majority of which are intended to hoist Starliner or satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband network.
After the spacecraft is certified, the Space Force intends to deploy ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket for NSSL missions. (Vulcan has successfully launched one mission, the Peregrine moon lander launched by Astrobotic in January of this year. Although the launch went well, Peregrine had issues soon after taking off and did not land on the moon as scheduled.)