Atlas V is an

expendable launch system An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are either destroyed during reentry or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of several rocket sta ...

and the fifth major version in the Atlas launch vehicle family. It was designed by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

and has been operated by

United Launch Alliance United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, a ...

(ULA) since 2006. It is used for DoD, NASA, and commercial payloads. It is America's longest-serving active rocket. After 87 launches, in August 2021 ULA announced that Atlas V would be retired, and all 29 remaining launches had been sold. , 15 launches remain. Production ceased in 2024. Other future ULA launches will use the

Vulcan Centaur Vulcan Centaur is a two-stage-to-orbit, heavy-lift launch vehicle that is under development by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2014 with an initial flight expected in early 2023. It is principally designed to meet launch demands for the ...

rocket. Each Atlas V launch vehicle consists of two main stages. The first stage is powered by a single Russian

RD-180 The RD-180 ( rus, РД-180, Ракетный Двигатель-180, Raketnyy Dvigatel-180) is a rocket engine designed and built in Russia. It features a dual combustion chamber, dual-nozzle design and is fueled by a RP-1/LOX mixture. The RD-18 ...

engine burning

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

and

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...

. The

Centaur A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...

upper stage is powered by one or two American

RL10 The RL10 is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine built in the United States by Aerojet Rocketdyne that burns cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants. Modern versions produce up to of thrust per engine in vacuum. Three RL10 ve ...

engine(s) manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne and burns

liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33 K. However, for it to be in a fully li ...

and

. Strap-on

solid rocket booster A solid rocket booster (SRB) is a large solid propellant motor used to provide thrust in spacecraft launches from initial launch through the first ascent. Many launch vehicles, including the Atlas V, SLS and space shuttle, have used SRBs to give ...

s (SRBs) are used in most configurations.

AJ-60A AJ-60A is a solid rocket booster produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne. Up to 2020 they were used as strap-on boosters on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. History The AJ-60A rocket motor was developed between 1999 and 2003 for use on the Atlas ...

SRBs were used originally, but they were replaced in November 2020 by Graphite-Epoxy Motor (GEM 63) SRBs for all except Starliner launches. The standard

payload fairing A payload fairing is a nose cone used to protect a spacecraft payload against the impact of dynamic pressure and aerodynamic heating during launch through an atmosphere. An additional function on some flights is to maintain the cleanroom environm ...

s are in diameter with various lengths.

Vehicle description

The Atlas V was developed by Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services (LMCLS) as part of the U.S. Air Force

Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle National Security Space Launch (NSSL) — formerly Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) from 1994 to 2019 — is a program of the United States Space Force (USSF) intended to assure access to space for United States Department of Defense and o ...

(EELV) program and made its inaugural flight on 21 August 2002. The vehicle operates from

SLC-41 Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41), previously Launch Complex 41 (LC-41), is an active launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. As of 2020, the site is used by United Launch Alliance (ULA) for Atlas V launches. Previously, it had been use ...

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station ...

(CCSFS). It also operated from

SLC-3E Space Launch Complex 3 (SLC-3) is a launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base that consists of two separate launch pads. SLC-3E (East) is currently used by the Atlas V launch vehicle, while SLC-3W (West) has been demolished. Launches from Vand ...

at Vandenberg Space Force Base until 2022. LMCLS continued to market the Atlas V to commercial customers worldwide until January 2018, when

(ULA) assumed control of commercial marketing and sales.

Atlas V first stage

The Atlas V first stage, the

Common Core Booster The Common Core Booster (CCB) is an American rocket stage, which is used as the first stage of the Atlas V rocket as part of its modular design. It was also intended that two additional CCBs would be used as boosters on the Atlas V Heavy, howeve ...

(not to be confused with the Delta IV's Common Booster Core), is in diameter and in length. It is powered by one Russian

NPO Energomash NPO Energomash “V. P. Glushko” is a major Russian rocket engine manufacturer. The company primarily develops and produces liquid propellant rocket engines. Energomash originates from the Soviet design bureau OKB-456, which was founded in 1 ...

main engine burning of liquid oxygen and RP-1. The booster operates for about four minutes, providing about of thrust. Thrust can be augmented with up to five

Aerojet Aerojet was an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California, with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange and Gainesville in Virginia, and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet was owned by GenCorp. ...

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

GEM 63 strap-on

s, each providing an additional of thrust for 94 seconds. The main differences between the Atlas V and earlier Atlas I and II family launch vehicles are: * The first stage tanks no longer use

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...

monocoque pressure stabilized "balloon" construction. The tanks are

isogrid Isogrid is a type of partially hollowed-out structure formed usually from a single metal plate (or face sheet) with triangular integral stiffening ribs (often called stringers). It was patented by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). It is extr ...

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

and are structurally stable when unpressurized. * Accommodation points for parallel stages, both smaller solids and identical liquids, are built into first-stage structures. * The ''"1.5 staging"'' technique is no longer used, having been discontinued on the

Atlas III The Atlas III (known as the Atlas II-AR (R for Russian) early in development ) was an American orbital launch vehicle, used in the years between 2000 and 2005. It was developed from the highly successful Atlas II rocket and shared many componen ...

with the introduction of the Russian RD-180 engine. * The main-stage diameter increased from .

Centaur upper stage

The Centaur upper stage uses a pressure-stabilized propellant-tank design and cryogenic propellants. The Centaur stage for Atlas V is stretched relative to the

Atlas IIAS Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s. The Atlas II was a direct evolution of the Atlas I, featuring longer first stage tanks, higher-performing engines ...

Centaur and is powered by either one or two Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10A-4-2 engines, each engine developing a thrust of . The inertial navigation unit (INU) located on the Centaur provides guidance and navigation for both the Atlas and Centaur and controls both Atlas and Centaur tank pressures and propellant use. The Centaur engines are capable of multiple in-space starts, making possible insertion into low Earth parking orbit, followed by a coast period and then insertion into GTO. A subsequent third burn following a multi-hour coast can permit direct injection of payloads into

geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

. , the Centaur vehicle had the highest proportion of burnable propellant relative to total mass of any modern hydrogen upper stage and hence can deliver substantial payloads to a high-energy state.

Payload fairing

Atlas V payload fairings are available in two diameters, depending on satellite requirements. The diameter fairing, originally designed for the Atlas II booster, comes in three different lengths: the original version and extended versions, first flown respectively on the AV-008/ Astra 1KR and AV-004/ Inmarsat-4 F1 missions. Fairings of up to diameter and length have been considered but were never implemented. A diameter fairing, with an internally usable diameter of , was developed and built by

RUAG Space Beyond Gravity is the space-oriented segment of the Swiss technology group RUAG. At a total of fourteen sites in Switzerland ( Zurich, Emmen and Nyon), Sweden ( Gothenburg, Linköping), Finland (Tampere), Germany ( Coswig), USA (Denver, Tit ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The RUAG fairing uses

carbon fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

composite construction and is based on a similar flight-proven fairing for the

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ...

. Three configurations are manufactured to support the Atlas V: , , and long. While the classic fairing covers only the payload, the RUAG fairing is much longer and fully encloses both the Centaur upper stage and the payload.

Upgrades

Many systems on the Atlas V have been the subject of upgrade and enhancement both prior to the first Atlas V flight and since that time. Work on a

Fault Tolerant Fault tolerance is the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of one or more faults within some of its components. If its operating quality decreases at all, the decrease is proportional to the ...

Inertial Navigation Unit (FTINU) started in 2001 to enhance mission reliability for Atlas vehicles by replacing the earlier non-redundant navigation and computing equipment with a fault-tolerant unit. The upgraded FTINU first flew in 2006, and in 2010 a follow-on order for more FTINU units was awarded. In 2015, ULA announced that the Aerojet Rocketdyne-produced

solid rocket boosters (SRBs) then in use on Atlas V would be superseded by new GEM 63 boosters produced by

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alli ...

. The extended GEM 63XL boosters will also be used on the

launch vehicle that will replace the Atlas V. The first Atlas V launch with GEM 63 boosters happened on 13 November 2020.

Human-rating certification

Proposals and design work to human-rate the Atlas V began as early as 2006, with ULA's parent company

reporting an agreement with Bigelow Aerospace that was intended to lead to commercial

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

trips to

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

(LEO). Human-rating design and simulation work began in earnest in 2010, with the award of US$6.7 million in the first phase of the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Commercial Crew Program (CCP) to develop an

Emergency Detection System An Emergency Detection System (EDS) is a system that is used on crewed rocket missions. It monitors critical launch vehicle and spacecraft systems and issues status, warning and abort commands to the crew during their mission to low Earth orbit. I ...

(EDS). As of February 2011, ULA had received an extension to April 2011 from NASA and was finishing up work on the EDS. NASA solicited proposals for CCP phase 2 in October 2010, and ULA proposed to complete design work on the EDS. At the time, NASA's goal was to get astronauts to orbit by 2015. Then-ULA President and CEO Michael Gass stated that a schedule acceleration to 2014 was possible if funded. Other than the addition of the Emergency Detection System, no major changes were expected to the Atlas V rocket, but ground infrastructure modifications were planned. The most likely candidate for the human-rating was the N02 configuration, with no fairing, no solid rocket boosters, and dual RL10 engines on the Centaur upper stage. On 18 July 2011, NASA and ULA announced an agreement on the possibility of certifying the Atlas V to NASA's standards for human spaceflight. ULA agreed to provide NASA with data on the Atlas V, while NASA would provide ULA with draft human certification requirements. In 2011, the human-rated Atlas V was also still under consideration to carry spaceflight participants to the proposed Bigelow Commercial Space Station. In 2011,

Sierra Nevada Corporation Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is an American, privately held aerospace and national security contractor specializing in aircraft modification and integration, space components and systems, and related technology products for cybersecurity and ...

(SNC) picked the Atlas V to be the booster for its still-under-development

Dream Chaser Dream Chaser is an American reusable lifting-body spaceplane being developed by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems. Originally intended as a crewed vehicle, the Dream Chaser Space System is set to be produced after the cargo varian ...

crewed

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes ten ...

. The Dream Chaser was intended to launch on an Atlas V, fly a crew to the ISS, and land horizontally following a

lifting-body A lifting body is a fixed-wing aircraft or spacecraft configuration in which the body itself produces lift (force), lift. In contrast to a flying wing, which is a wing with minimal or no conventional fuselage, a lifting body can be thought of as ...

reentry. However, in late 2014

did not select the Dream Chaser to be one of the two vehicles selected under the Commercial Crew competition. On 4 August 2011,

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

announced that it would use the Atlas V as the initial launch vehicle for its

CST-100 The Boeing CST-100 Starliner
is a class of two partially

crew capsule. CST-100 will take NASA astronauts to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

(ISS) and was also intended to service the proposed Bigelow Commercial Space Station. A three-flight test program was projected to be completed by 2015, certifying the Atlas V/CST-100 combination for human spaceflight operations. The first flight was expected to include an Atlas V rocket integrated with an uncrewed CST-100 capsule, the second flight an in-flight launch abort system demonstration in the middle of that year, and the third flight a crewed mission carrying two Boeing test-pilot astronauts into LEO and returning them safely at the end of 2015. These plans were delayed by many years and morphed along the way so that in the end, the first orbital test flight with no crew materialized in 2019, but it was a failure and needed to be reflown in 2022, the in-flight launch abort system test flight did not materialize, and the third flight, a crewed orbital test flight with two astronauts (in the end NASA's, not Boeing's astronauts) materialized in June 2024 as Boeing Crewed Flight Test. The launch abort system was tested in 2019 in the Boeing Pad Abort Test mission but this did not take place in-flight but from the launch pad. In 2014,

selected the Boeing Starliner CST-100 spacecraft as part of the Commercial Crew Program. Atlas V is the launch vehicle for Starliner. The first launch of an uncrewed Starliner, the Boeing OFT mission, occurred atop a human-rated Atlas V on the morning of 20 December 2019; the mission failed to meet goals due to a spacecraft failure, though the Atlas V launcher performed well. In 2022, an Atlas V launched an uncrewed Starliner capsule for the second time on Boe-OFT 2 mission; the mission was a success. In June 2024, on

Boe-CFT Boeing Crew Flight Test (Boe CFT) will be the first crewed mission of the Boeing Starliner and the third orbital flight test of the Starliner overall after the two uncrewed flight tests, OFT-1 and OFT-2. Though the launch date for the mission ...

mission, Atlas V carried humans into space for the first time, launching two NASA astronauts to the ISS.

Project Kuiper

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

has selected the Atlas V to launch some of the satellites for

Project Kuiper Kuiper Systems LLC is a subsidiary of Amazon that was set up in 2019 to deploy a large broadband satellite internet constellation to provide broadband internet connectivity. The deployment is also referred to by its project name "Project Kuipe ...

. Project Kuiper will offer a high-speed satellite internet constellation service. The contract signed with Amazon is for nine launches. Project Kuiper aims to put thousands of satellites into orbit. ULA is Amazon's first launch provider. Two Kuiper test satellites were launched on Atlas V in 2023 because their originally-contracted launch vehicles were not available on time. The remaining eight Atlas V Kuiper launches will each carry a full payload of Kuiper satellites. Most of the Kuiper constellation will use other launch vehicles.

Versions

Each Atlas V booster configuration has a three-digit designation. The first digit shows the diameter (in meters) of the payload fairing and has a value of "4" or "5" for fairing launches and "N" for crew capsule launches (as no payload fairing is used). The second digit indicates the number of solid rocket boosters (SRBs) attached to the core of the launch vehicle and can range from "0" through "3" with the fairing, and "0" through "5" with the fairing. As seen in the first image, all SRB layouts are asymmetrical. The third digit represents the number of engines on the Centaur stage, either "1" or "2". All of the configurations use the Single Engine Centaur, except for the "N22" which is only used on Starliner crew capsule missions, and uses Dual Engine Centaur. Atlas V has flown in eleven configurations: ;

Launch cost

Before 2016, pricing information for Atlas V launches was limited. In 2010, NASA contracted with ULA to launch the MAVEN mission on an Atlas V 401 for approximately US$187 million. The 2013 cost of this configuration for the U.S. Air Force under their block buy of 36 launch vehicles was US$164 million. In 2015, the

TDRS-M TDRS-13, known before launch as TDRS-M, is an American communications satellite operated by NASA as part of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. The thirteenth Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, it is the third and final third-generation ...

launch on an Atlas 401 cost NASA US$132.4 million. Starting in 2016, ULA provided pricing for the Atlas V through its RocketBuilder website, advertising a base price for each launch vehicle configuration, which ranges from US$109 million for the 401 up to US$153 million for the 551. Each additional SRB adds an average of US$6.8 million to the cost of the launch vehicle. Customers can also choose to purchase larger payload fairings or additional launch service options. NASA and Air Force launch costs are often higher than equivalent commercial missions due to additional government accounting, analysis, processing, and mission assurance requirements, which can add US$30–80 million to the cost of a launch. In 2013, launch costs for commercial satellites to GTO averaged about US$100 million, significantly lower than historic Atlas V pricing. However, in recent years the price of an Atlas V 01has dropped from approximately US$180 million to US$109 million, in large part due to competitive pressure that emerged in the launch services marketplace during the early 2010s. ULA CEO

Tory Bruno Tory Bruno (born November 3, 1961 as Salvatore Thomas Bruno) is an American aerospace engineer and executive. He has been the CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA) since August 2014. Before ULA, he worked at Lockheed Martin, where he made the trans ...

stated in 2016 that ULA needs at least two commercial missions each year in order to stay profitable going forward. ULA is not attempting to win these missions on purely lowest purchase price, stating that it "would rather be the best ''value'' provider". In 2016, ULA suggested that customers would have much lower

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

and delay costs because of the high Atlas V reliability and schedule certainty, making overall customer costs close to that of using competitors like the

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

Falcon 9.

Historically proposed versions

In 2006, ULA offered an Atlas V Heavy option that would use three

(CCB) stages strapped together to lift a payload to

. ULA stated at the time that 95% of the hardware required for the Atlas V Heavy has already been flown on the Atlas V single-core vehicles. The lifting capability of the proposed launch vehicle was to be roughly equivalent to the

Delta IV Heavy The Delta IV Heavy (Delta 9250H) is an expendable heavy-lift launch vehicle, the largest type of the Delta IV family. It is the world's third highest-capacity launch vehicle in operation, behind NASA's Space Launch System and SpaceX's Falcon He ...

, which used RS-68 engines developed and produced domestically by Aerojet Rocketdyne. A 2006 report, prepared by the

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...

for the

Office of the Secretary of Defense The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is a headquarters-level staff of the United States Department of Defense. It is the principal civilian staff element of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and it assists the Secretary in carrying out aut ...

, stated that Lockheed Martin had decided not to develop an Atlas V heavy-lift vehicle (HLV). The report recommended for the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to "determine the necessity of an EELV heavy-lift variant, including development of an Atlas V Heavy", and to "resolve the RD-180 issue, including coproduction,

stockpile A stockpile is a pile or storage location for bulk materials, forming part of the bulk material handling process. Stockpiles are used in many different areas, such as in a port, refinery or manufacturing facility. The stockpile is normally cre ...

, or United States development of an RD-180 replacement". In 2010, ULA stated that the Atlas V Heavy variant could be available to customers 30 months from the date of order. ;Atlas V PH2: In late 2006, the Atlas V program gained access to the tooling and processes for 5-meter-diameter stages used on

Delta IV Delta IV is a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family introduced in the early 2000s. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, the ...

when Boeing and Lockheed Martin space operations were merged into the

. This led to a proposal to combine the 5-meter-diameter Delta IV tankage production processes with dual RD-180 engines, resulting in the Atlas Phase 2. An Atlas V PH2-Heavy consisting of three 5-meter stages in parallel with six RD-180s was considered in the Augustine Report as a possible heavy lifter for use in future space missions, as well as the Shuttle-derived Ares V and Ares V Lite. If built, the Atlas PH2-Heavy was projected to be able to launch a payload mass of approximately into an orbit of 28.5°

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

.HSF Final Report: Seeking a Human Spaceflight Program Worthy of a Great Nation
October 2009 ''Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee'' graphic on p. 64, retrieved 2011-02-07. ;Booster for GX rocket: The Atlas V Common Core Booster was to have been used as the first stage of the joint US-Japanese GX rocket, which was scheduled to make its first flight in 2012. GX launches would have been from the Atlas V launch complex at Vandenberg Air Force Base,

. However, the Japanese government decided to cancel the GX project in December 2009. ;Out-licensing rejected by ULA: In May 2015, a consortium of companies, including

and Dynetics, sought to license the production or manufacturing rights to the Atlas V using the AR1 engine in place of the RD-180. The proposal was rejected by ULA.

Atlas V launches

ULA has stopped selling the Atlas V. It will fly 15 more launches. For planned launches, see

List of Atlas launches (2020–2029) Notable missions Solar Orbiter Mars 2020 Landsat 9 Lucy Launch statistics Launch sites Launch outcomes Rocket configurations Launch history 2020 2021 2022 Future launches In August 2021, ...

Notable missions

The first payload, the

Hot Bird Hot Bird (also styled HOTBIRD) is a group of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13 °E over the equator ( orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Asia, Europe, North Africa, Americas and the Middle East. Only digital r ...

6 communications satellite, was launched to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) on 21 August 2002 by an Atlas V 401. On 12 August 2005, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched aboard an Atlas V 401 launch vehicle from

Space Launch Complex 41 Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41), previously Launch Complex 41 (LC-41), is an active launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. As of 2020, the site is used by United Launch Alliance (ULA) for Atlas V launches. Previously, it had been use ...

at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). The Centaur upper stage of the launch vehicle completed its burns over a 56-minute period and placed MRO into an interplanetary transfer orbit towards Mars. On 19 January 2006,

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research ...

was launched by a Lockheed Martin Atlas V 551 rocket. A third stage was added to increase the heliocentric (escape) speed. This was the first launch of the Atlas V 551 configuration with five solid rocket boosters, and the first Atlas V with a third stage. On 6 December 2015, Atlas V lifted its heaviest payload to date into orbit – a Cygnus resupply craft. On 8 September 2016, the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission was launched on an Atlas V 411 launch vehicle. It arrived at the asteroid Bennu in December 2018 and departed back to Earth in May 2021 to arrive September 2022 at with a sample ranging from 60 grams to 2 kilograms in 2023. Five Boeing X-37B

missions were successfully launched with the Atlas V. The flights are launched on Atlas V 501s from

in Florida. The X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft operated by USAF that can autonomously conduct landings from orbit to a runway. The first Vandenberg Air Force Base landing at the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

runway occurred in December 2010. Landings occur at both Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral depending on mission requirements. On 20 December 2019, the first Starliner crew capsule was launched in

Boe-OFT The Boeing Starliner Orbital Flight Test (also known as Boe-OFT) was the first orbital mission of the Boeing Starliner, CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, conducted by Boeing Defense, Space & Security, Boeing as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Prog ...

un-crewed test flight. The Atlas V

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

performed flawlessly but an anomaly with the spacecraft left it in a wrong orbit. The orbit was too low to reach the flight's destination of ISS, and the mission was subsequently cut short.

Mission success record

In its 100 launches (as of June 2024), starting with its first launch in August 2002, Atlas V has achieved a 100% mission success rate and a 99% vehicle success rate. The first anomalous event in the use of the Atlas V launch system occurred on 15 June 2007, when the engine in the Centaur upper stage of an Atlas V shut down early, leaving its payload – a pair of NROL-30 ocean

surveillance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...

s – in a lower than intended orbit. The cause of the anomaly was traced to a leaky valve, which allowed fuel to leak during the coast between the first and second burns. The resulting lack of fuel caused the second burn to terminate 4 seconds early. Replacing the valve led to a delay in the next Atlas V launch. However, the customer (the National Reconnaissance Office) categorized the mission as a success. A flight on 23 March 2016, suffered an underperformance anomaly on the first-stage burn and shut down 5 seconds early. The Centaur proceeded to boost the Orbital Cygnus payload, the heaviest on an Atlas to date, into the intended orbit by using its fuel reserves to make up for the shortfall from the first stage. This longer burn cut short a later Centaur disposal burn. An investigation of the incident revealed that this anomaly was due to a fault in the main engine mixture-ratio supply valve, which restricted the flow of fuel to the engine. The investigation and subsequent examination of the valves on upcoming missions led to a delay of the next several launches.

Notable payloads

* Boeing Starliner *

Boeing X-37 The Boeing X-37, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft. It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the United Stat ...

* ELaNa * Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite *

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

* Inmarsat * InSight *

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...

* Lucy *

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic missions t ...

Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was a robotic spacecraft operated by NASA. The mission was conceived as a low-cost means of determining the nature of hydrogen detected at the polar regions of the Moon. Launched immed ...

* Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter *

Curiosity Curiosity (from Latin '' cūriōsitās'', from ''cūriōsus'' "careful, diligent, curious", akin to ''cura'' "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans ...

* Perseverance and Ingenuity * MAVEN * MUOS-1 (200th Centaur upper stage launch) *

* NROL launches * OSIRIS-REx * Solar Dynamics Observatory *

Solar Orbiter The Solar Orbiter (SolO) is a Sun-observing satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). SolO, designed to obtain detailed measurements of the inner heliosphere and the nascent solar wind, will also perform close observations of the ...

* Space Test Program * USA-212

Replacement with Vulcan

In 2014, geopolitical and

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

considerations because of the Russian annexation of Crimea led to an effort to replace the Russian-supplied

engine used on the first-stage booster of the Atlas V. Formal study contracts were issued in June 2014 to a number of U.S. rocket-engine suppliers. The results of those studies led to a decision by ULA to develop the new

launch vehicle to replace the existing Atlas V and

Delta IV Delta IV is a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta (rocket family), Delta rocket family introduced in the early 2000s. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the National Security Space Launch, ...

. In September 2014, ULA announced a partnership with

Blue Origin Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Am ...

to develop the

BE-4 The Blue Engine 4 or BE-4 is an oxygen-rich liquefied-methane-fueled staged-combustion rocket engine under development by Blue Origin. The BE-4 is being developed with private and public funding. The engine has been designed to produce of thr ...

LOX Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...

engine to replace the RD-180 on a new first-stage booster. As the Atlas V core is designed around RP-1 fuel and cannot be retrofitted to use a methane-fueled engine, a new first stage is being developed. This booster will have the same first-stage tankage diameter as the Delta IV and will be powered by two thrust BE-4 engines. The engine was already in its third year of development by Blue Origin, and ULA expected the new stage and engine to start flying no earlier than 2019. Vulcan was initially planned to use the same

upper stage as on Atlas V, and later to upgrade to

ACES ACeS (PT Asia Cellular Satellite) was a regional satellite telecommunications company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It offered GSM-like satellite telephony services to Asian market. The coverage area included Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Phili ...

, however

is no longer being pursued, and

Centaur V The Centaur is a family of rocket propelled upper stages produced by U.S. launch service provider United Launch Alliance, with one main active version and one version under development. The diameter Common Centaur/Centaur III flies as the upp ...

will be used instead. It will also use a variable number of optional solid rocket boosters, called the GEM 63XL, derived from the new solid boosters planned for Atlas V. As of 2017, the Aerojet AR1 rocket engine was under development as a backup plan for Vulcan. The first Vulcan successfully launched on 8 January 2024.

Retirement

In August 2021, ULA announced that they are no longer selling launches on the Atlas V and they would fulfill their 29 existing launch contracts. They made a final purchase of the RD-180 motors they needed and the last of those motors were delivered in April 2021. The last launch will occur "some time in the mid-2020s". , twelve missions have flown since the announcement, and 17 launches remain.

Photo gallery

File:Atlas V rocket raised.jpg, Core stage of an Atlas V being raised to a vertical position. File:Boeing X-37B inside payload fairing before launch.jpg,

X-37B The Boeing X-37, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft. It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the United State ...

OTV-1 (Orbital Test Vehicle) being encased in its payload fairing for its 22 April 2010, launch. File:Mars Science Laboratory Atlas V rocket AV-028 rollout to SLC-41.jpg, An Atlas V 541 is moved to the launch pad. File:TDRS-L on launch pad.jpg, Atlas V 401 on launch pad File:Atlas V Ignition for TDRS-L Launch.jpg, Atlas V ignition File:New Horizons launch.jpg, An Atlas V 551 with the

probe launches from Launch Pad 41 in

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

Notes

References

External links

ULA Atlas V data sheets
*
Atlas 500 series cutaway
*
Atlas 400 series cutaway

ULA Atlas V RocketBuilder

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