CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — Early Tuesday morning, United Launch Alliance launched its 100th national security mission, which also happened to be the final top-secret launch for its Atlas V rocket.
What You Need To Know
- It is Atlas V’s last national security launch
- The Atlas family of rockets have been in use since 1957
- It took off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
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- 🔻Scroll down to watch the launch🔻
The famed Atlas V rocket sent up the top-secret USSF-51 mission for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command, stated ULA.
It took off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:45 a.m. ET.
The 45th Weather Squadron gave an 80% chance of good launch conditions, with the only worries being the cumulus cloud and anvil cloud rules.
Unlike SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets, the Atlas V’s first-stage booster does not land.
About the mission and Atlas V
Not much is known about the USSF-51 flight, except that it is a classified National Security Space Launch mission for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC).
“The USSF-51 mission marks the 58th and final national security launch on Atlas V as ULA transitions to the next generation Vulcan rocket, whose inaugural launch this past January marked the beginning of a new era of space capabilities by providing higher performance and greater affordability while offering the world’s only high energy architecture rocket to deliver any payload, at any time, to any orbit,” stated ULA in a press release to the media.
In a separate press release, a SSC official said the last mission “is looking great!”
“The Space Force Atlas V team has an amazing record of serving our National Security Space lift needs,” stated USSF Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader for SSC’s Launch Execution Delta. “We have always worked extremely well with this team, and this mission, our last launch with the Atlas V, is looking great!”
While this may be the last NSSL mission for the Atlas V rocket — which the Atlas family started its service in 1957 and includes such missions as military, government, commercial and science — it still has some space miles to go before retirement.
The SSC stated the Atlas V rocket has 15 more commercial and non-defense missions, which include crewed launches.
While many will await to see Atlas V’s next mission, the next flight for ULA will be its second certification flight of its Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in September 2024.
The first certification test of the Vulcan rocket was January 2024.
Watch the launch live
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