Atlas V

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 (EELV) program and made its inaugural flight on August 21, 2002. The vehicle operates from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). It also operated from SLC-3E at Vandenberg Space Force Base until 2022. LMCLS continued to market the Atlas V to commercial customers worldwide until January 2018, when United Launch Alliance (ULA) assumed control of commercial marketing and sales.

Atlas V first stage

Main article: Common Core Booster

The Atlas V first stage, the Common Core Booster (not to be confused with the Delta IV's Common Booster Core), is 3.8 m in diameter and 32.5 m in length. It is powered by one Russian NPO Energomash RD-180 main engine burning 284450 kg of liquid oxygen and RP-1. The booster operates for about four minutes, providing about 4 MN of thrust. Thrust can be augmented with up to five Aerojet AJ-60A or Northrop Grumman GEM 63 strap-on solid rocket boosters, each providing an additional 1.27 MN 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 monocoque pressure stabilized "balloon" construction. The tanks are isogrid aluminum 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 with the introduction of the Russian RD-180 engine.
• The main-stage diameter increased from 3.0 to.

Centaur III upper stage

Main article: Centaur (rocket stage)

The Centaur III upper stage uses a pressure-stabilized propellant-tank design and cryogenic propellants. The Centaur III was first introduced for use on the Atlas III and was stretched 1.7 m relative to the Centaur II used on the Atlas II. It is powered by either one or two Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engines, each developing a thrust of up to 101.8 kN. 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.

When the Atlas V was introduced, the Centaur III was alternatively called the Common Centaur, reflecting its use on both the Atlas III and V. , the Centaur III 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 4.2 m diameter fairing, originally designed for the Atlas II booster, comes in three different lengths: the original 9 m version and extended 10 and versions, first flown respectively on the AV-008/Astra 1KR and AV-004/Inmarsat-4 F1 missions. Fairings of up to 7.2 m diameter and 32.3 m length have been considered but were never implemented.

A 5.4 m diameter fairing, with an internally usable diameter of 4.57 m, was developed and built by RUAG Space in Switzerland. The RUAG fairing uses carbon fiber composite construction and is based on a similar flight-proven fairing for the Ariane 5. Three configurations are manufactured to support the Atlas V: 20.7 m, 23.4 m, and 26.5 m long.

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 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 AJ-60A solid rocket boosters (SRBs) then in use on Atlas V would be superseded by new GEM 63 boosters produced by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. The extended GEM 63XL boosters will also be used on the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle that will replace the Atlas V. The first Atlas V launch with GEM 63 boosters happened on November 13, 2020.

Human-rating certification

Proposals and design work to human-rate the Atlas V began as early as 2006, with ULA's parent company Lockheed Martin reporting an agreement with Bigelow Aerospace that was intended to lead to commercial private trips to low Earth orbit (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 Commercial Crew Program (CCP) to develop an Emergency Detection System (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 July 18, 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, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) picked the Atlas V to be the booster for its still-under-development Dream Chaser crewed spaceplane. The Dream Chaser was intended to launch on an Atlas V, fly a crew to the ISS, and land horizontally following a lifting-body reentry. However, in late 2014 NASA did not select the Dream Chaser to be one of the two vehicles selected under the Commercial Crew competition.

On August 4, 2011, Boeing announced that it would use the Atlas V as the initial launch vehicle for its CST-100 crew capsule. CST-100 will take NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (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. The spacecraft launched from a test stand, not from an Atlas V.

In 2014, NASA 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 December 20, 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 mission, Atlas V carried humans into space for the first time, launching two NASA astronauts to the ISS.

Amazon Leo

Amazon selected the Atlas V to launch some of the satellites for Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper. Amazon Leo will offer a high-speed satellite internet constellation service. The contract signed with Amazon is for all nine remaining available Atlas V rockets. Amazon Leo aims to put thousands of satellites into orbit. ULA is Amazon's first launch provider. Two 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 Amazon Leo launches will each carry a full payload of Leo satellites. Most of the Amazon Leo constellation will use other launch vehicles. The first launch of an Atlas V carrying the first batch of 27 Leo satellites launched on April 28, 2025.

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 4 m fairing, and "0" through "5" with the 5 m 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 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, after the rise of reusable rockets, the price of an Atlas V [401] has 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 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 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 Falcon 9.

Historically proposed versions

In 2006, ULA offered an Atlas V Heavy option that would use three Common Core Booster (CCB) stages strapped together to lift a 29400 kg payload to low Earth orbit. 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, which used RS-68 engines developed and produced domestically by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

A 2006 report, prepared by the RAND Corporation for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, stated that Lockheed Martin had decided not to develop an Atlas V heavy-lift vehicle (HLV).{{cite book |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023080432/https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2006/RAND_MG503.pdf|archive-date=October 23, 2012}} 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, 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 when Boeing and Lockheed Martin space operations were merged into the United Launch Alliance. 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 70 MT into an orbit of 28.5° inclination.

;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, SLC-3E. 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 Aerojet and Dynetics, sought to license the production or manufacturing rights to the Atlas V using the Aerojet Rocketdyne 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 ten more launches.

For planned launches, see List of Atlas launches (2020–2029).

Notable missions

The first payload, the Hot Bird 6 communications satellite, was launched to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) on August 21, 2002, by an Atlas V 401.

On August 12, 2005, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched aboard an Atlas V 401 launch vehicle from Space Launch Complex 41 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 January 19, 2006, New Horizons 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 December 6, 2015, Atlas V lifted its heaviest payload to date into orbit – a 16517 lb Cygnus resupply craft.

On September 8, 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 spaceplane missions were successfully launched with the Atlas V. The flights are launched on Atlas V 501s from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station 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. Landings occur at both Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral depending on mission requirements.

On December 20, 2019, the first Starliner crew capsule was launched in Boe-OFT un-crewed test flight. The Atlas V launch vehicle 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 June 15, 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 satellites – 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 March 23, 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.

Orbital debris creation

The mission success criteria used by ULA includes only delivering the payload to a correct, or at least acceptable, orbit. A more expansive definition, subscribed to internationally, and by both NASA and the DOD, includes not generating any un-necessary orbital debris, even after the primary mission is complete. By this more expansive standard, Atlas V has had 4 failures, each where an derelict Centaur stage fragmented in orbit long after the primary mission was completed.{{cite web |url=https://payloadspace.com/slingshot-tracks-centaur-break-up-in-heo/#:~:text=Imagery:%20Slingshot%20Aerospace.,GOES%2D18%20satellite%20in%202018. |title=Slingshot Tracks Centaur Break-Up in HEO

Notable payloads

• Boeing Starliner
• Boeing X-37
• ELaNa
• Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite
• GPS
• Inmarsat
• InSight
• Juno
• Lucy
• Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
• Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite
• Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
• Curiosity
• Perseverance and Ingenuity
• MAVEN
• MUOS-1 (200th Centaur upper stage launch)
• New Horizons
• NROL launches
• OSIRIS-REx
• Solar Dynamics Observatory
• Solar Orbiter
• Space Test Program
• USA-212

Replacement with Vulcan

Main article: Vulcan Centaur

In 2014, geopolitical and U.S. political considerations because of the Russian annexation of Crimea led to an effort to replace the Russian-supplied NPO Energomash RD-180 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.

Although ULA intended to complete development of Vulcan by 2019, development took longer than expected and the first Vulcan launch was on January 8, 2024.

In September 2014, ULA announced a partnership with Blue Origin to develop the BE-4 LOX/methane 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 was developed. This booster has the same first-stage tankage diameter as the Delta IV and is powered by two 2400 kN thrust BE-4 engines.

Vulcan uses the Centaur V developed for it instead of the Centaur III used on Atlas V. It also uses two, four, or six optional solid rocket boosters, called the GEM 63XL, derived from the GEN 63 solid boosters used on Atlas V.

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". , eighteen missions have flown since the announcement, and eleven launches remain.

Photo gallery

File:Atlas V(401) launches with LRO and LCROSS cropped.jpg|Launch of an Atlas V 401 carrying the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and LCROSS space probes on June 18, 2009. 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 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 New Horizons probe launches from Launch Pad 41 in Cape Canaveral.

Notes

References

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104. Graham, William. (September 13, 2012). "ULA Atlas V finally launches with NROL-36". NASASpaceFlight.com.
105. (December 11, 2012). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Third X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle for the Air Force". United Launch Alliance.
106. (January 31, 2013). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite". United Launch Alliance.
107. Justin Ray. "Atlas 5 rocket launch continues legacy of Landsat". Spaceflight Now.
108. "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Second Space-Based Infrared System SBIRS Satellite to Orbit for the U.S. Air Force". United Launch Alliance.
109. "ULA Launches 70th Successful Mission in 77 Months with the Launch of the GPS IIF-4 Satellite for the Air Force". United Launch Alliance.
110. "United Launch Alliance Atlas V Rocket Successfully Launches Mobile User Objective System-2 Mission for U.S. Navy". United Launch Alliance.
111. "United Launch Alliance Marks 75th Successful Launch by Delivering the Advanced Extremely High Frequency-3 Satellite to Orbit for the U.S. Air Force". United Launch Alliance.
112. "United Launch Alliance Atlas V Rocket Successfully Launches MAVEN mission on Journey to the Red Planet". United Launch Alliance.
113. "United Launch Alliance Atlas V Rocket Successfully Launches Payload for the National Reconnaissance Office". ULA.
114. (January 23, 2014). "United Launch Alliance successfully launches NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite payload". United Launch Alliance.
115. (April 3, 2014). "United Launch Alliance Marks 80th Successful Launch by Delivering Air Force's Weather Satellite to Orbit". United Launch Alliance.
116. "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Second Mission in Just Seven Days". United Launch Alliance.
117. "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Four Missions in Just Seven Weeks". United Launch Alliance.
118. "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Two Rockets in Just Four Days". United Launch Alliance.
119. "United Launch Alliance Atlas V Launches WorldView-3 Satellite for DigitalGlobe". United Launch Alliance.
120. (September 17, 2014). "ULA Atlas V successfully launches secretive CLIO mission". NASASpaceFlight.com.
121. (September 17, 2014). "United Launch Alliance Launches Its 60th Mission from Cape Canaveral". United Launch Alliance.
122. "Orbital Debris Quarterly News". NASA.
123. (October 29, 2014). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches 50th Atlas V Rocket". United Launch Alliance.
124. "United Launch Alliance Atlas V Successfully Launches Payload for the National Reconnaissance Office". United Launch Alliance.
125. "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches the U.S. Navy's Mobile User Objective System-3". United Launch Alliance.
126. "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Solar Probes to Study Space Weather for NASA". United Launch Alliance.
127. "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle for the U.S. Air Force". United Launch Alliance.
128. (July 15, 2015). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Global Positioning Satellite for the U.S. Air Force". United Launch Alliance.
129. (September 2, 2015). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches the U.S. Navy's Mobile User Objective System-4". United Launch Alliance.
130. (October 2, 2015). "United Launch Alliance Reaches 100 Successful Missions with Morelos-3 Satellite". United Launch Alliance.
131. (October 8, 2015). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Payload for the National Reconnaissance Office". [[United Launch Alliance]].
132. (October 31, 2015). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches GPS IIF-11 Satellite for U.S. Air Force". [[United Launch Alliance]].
133. (December 6, 2015). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches OA-4 Cygnus to International Space Station". [[United Launch Alliance]].
134. (February 5, 2016). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches GPS IIF-12 Satellite for U.S. Air Force". [[United Launch Alliance]].
135. (March 22, 2016). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches 7,745 Pounds of Cargo to International Space Station". [[United Launch Alliance]].
136. (June 24, 2016). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches MUOS-5 Satellite for the U.S Air Force and U.S. Navy". [[United Launch Alliance]].
137. (July 28, 2016). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches NROL-61 Payload for the National Reconnaissance Office". United Launch Alliance.
138. (September 8, 2016). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft for NASA". [[United Launch Alliance]].
139. (November 11, 2016). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches WorldView-4 for DigitalGlobe". [[United Launch Alliance]].
140. (November 19, 2016). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches GOES-R Satellite for NASA and NOAA". [[United Launch Alliance]].
141. (December 18, 2016). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches EchoStar XIX Satellite". [[United Launch Alliance]].
142. (January 20, 2017). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches SBIRS GEO Flight 3 Satellite to Orbit for U.S. Air Force". [[United Launch Alliance]].
143. "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches NROL-79 Payload for the National Reconnaissance Office".
144. (April 18, 2017). "Atlas V Rocket Launches Private Cygnus Cargo Ship to Space Station". SPACE.com.
145. "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches NASA's TDRS-M Satellite".
146. (September 24, 2017). "United+Launch+Alliance+Successfully+Launches+NROL-42+Mission+for+the+National+Reconnaissance+Office". [[United Launch Alliance]].
147. Graham, William. (October 15, 2017). "Atlas V finally launches with NROL-52". [[NASASpaceFlight.com]].
148. (January 20, 2018). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches SBIRS GEO Flight 4 Mission for the U.S. Air Force". United Launch Alliance.
149. (March 1, 2018). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches GOES-S Weather Satellite for NASA and NOAA". United Launch Alliance.
150. "Slingshot Orbital Alert". X (formerly Twitter).
151. (April 15, 2018). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches AFSPC-11 Mission for the U.S. Air Force". [[United Launch Alliance]].
152. (May 5, 2018). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches West Coast's First Interplanetary Mission for NASA". [[United Launch Alliance]].
153. (October 17, 2018). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches AEHF-4 Mission". [[United Launch Alliance]].
154. (September 16, 2020). "The Maple Leaf".
155. (August 2019). "Orbital Debris Quarterly News". NASA.
156. "Breakup of Atlas 5 Centaur".
157. (August 8, 2019). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Communications Satellite for the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center". [[United Launch Alliance]].
158. (December 20, 2019). "Starliner suffers mission-shortening failure after successful launch".
159. (February 9, 2020). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Solar Orbiter to Study the Sun". [[United Launch Alliance]].
160. (March 26, 2020). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches First National Security Space Mission for the U.S. Space Force". [[United Launch Alliance]].
161. (May 17, 2020). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches the Sixth Orbital Test Vehicle for the U.S. Space Force". [[United Launch Alliance]].
162. (July 30, 2020). "Mars launch: NASA sends Perseverance rover to space". [[CNN]].
163. (November 14, 2020). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches NROL-101 Mission in Support of National Security". United Launch Alliance.
164. (May 18, 2021). "United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches SBIRS GEO Flight 5 Mission in Support of National Security". United Launch Alliance.
165. (June 23, 2021). "ULA delays further use of enhanced upper-stage engine pending studies". SpaceNews.
166. Mihir Neal and Lee Kanayama. (September 27, 2021). "NASA's Landsat 9 successfully launched aboard Atlas V from Vandenberg". NASASpaceFlight.com.
167. Warren, Haygen. (October 15, 2021). "NASA, ULA launch historic Lucy mission". NASASpaceFlight.com.
168. Fletcher, Colin. (December 7, 2021). "ULA launches Atlas V on long duration mission for Space Force". [[NASASpaceFlight]].
169. Graham, William. (January 21, 2022). "ULA's Atlas V launches satellite-inspection mission for Space Force". [[NASASpaceFlight]].
170. Kanayama, Lee. (March 1, 2022). "NOAA, NASA's GOES-T weather satellite launches on ULA Atlas V". [[NASASpaceFlight]].
171. Graham, William. (May 19, 2022). "Starliner OFT-2 launch makes it to orbit, heading to ISS". [[NASASpaceFlight]].
172. Graham, William. (July 1, 2022). "Atlas V launches two experimental military satellites on USSF-12 mission". [[NASASpaceFlight]].
173. Graham, William. (August 4, 2022). "ULA's Atlas V launches final SBIRS GEO missile detection satellite". [[NASASpaceFlight]].
174. Kanayama, Lee. (October 4, 2022). "Final Atlas V 531 launches dual SES-20 and SES-21 satellites". [[NASASpaceFlight]].
175. Gebhardt, Chris. (November 9, 2022). "Atlas rocket bids farewell to California as ULA readies for Vulcan". [[NASASpaceFlight]].
176. Atkinson, Ian. (September 10, 2023). "ULA conducts NROL-107 launch, last Atlas NRO mission". [[NASASpaceFlight]].
177. Mike, Wall. (October 6, 2023). "Atlas V rocket launches Amazon's 1st 2 internet satellites to orbit (video)". Space.com.
178. Elizabeth, Howell. (June 5, 2024). "Boeing's Starliner launches astronauts for 1st time in historic liftoff (photos, video)". Space.com.
179. Davenport, Justin. (July 29, 2024). "Atlas V has launched on its last ever national security mission".
180. (April 2, 2025). "Here's what to expect from Project Kuiper's first full-scale satellite launch".
181. (August 26, 2021). "ULA Atlas V to Retire After 29 Missions, Boeing-Lockheed's Venture Now Stops Sale of Rocket".
182. "Status: Hotbird 6". NextSpaceFlight.com.
183. "New Horizons Pluto Kuiper Belt Flyby". solarviews.com.
184. Ray, Justin. "Atlas 5 rocket sends Cygnus in hot pursuit of space station".
185. (February 20, 2015). "OSIRIS-REx".
186. (December 3, 2010). "X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle lands at Vandenberg AFB". U.S. Air Force.
187. "X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle". U.S. Air Force.
188. (July 28, 2019). "ULA delays focused on protecting its 100 percent mission success rate".
189. (July 2, 2007). "Air Force Issues Second Update Regarding Atlas V Centaur Upper Stage Anomaly Review". U.S. Air Force.
190. Peterson, Patrick. (September 2, 2007). "Faulty valve pushes back Atlas 5 launch". Florida Today.
191. (June 15, 2007). "NRO satellite successfully launched aboard Atlas V". NRO.
192. (June 18, 2007). "NROL-30 launch update". NRO.
193. (March 24, 2016). "Atlas 5 forced to improvise during Tuesday's climb to orbit". Spaceflight Now.
194. Ray, Justin. "New lineup spelled out for upcoming Atlas 5 rocket launches from the Cape". Spaceflight Now.
195. United Nations OFFICE FOR OUTER SPACE AFFAIRS. (2010). "Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space".
196. J.-C. Liou. (2019). "The 2019 U.S. Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices".
197. (2022). "DOD DIRECTIVE 3100.10SPACE POLICY".
198. (2025). "Investigation of Atlas V Centaur Upper Stage Fragmentation Events with Uncertainty Analysis". Springer.
199. "Another high-orbit Centaur, AV-077, has undergone a breakup.".
200. Gruss. (April 13, 2015). "ULA's Next Rocket To Be Named Vulcan". SpaceNews.
201. Belam, Martin. (January 8, 2024). "Nasa Peregrine 1 launch: Vulcan Centaur rocket carrying Nasa moon lander lifts off in Florida – live updates". the Guardian.
202. "Explosive test pushes 1st ULA Vulcan rocket launch to at least June, CEO says".
203. (September 17, 2014). "ULA To Invest in Blue Origin Engine as RD-180 Replacement". SpaceNews.
204. Gruss. (April 13, 2015). "ULA's Vulcan Rocket To be Rolled out in Stages". SpaceNews.
205. Butler, Amy. (May 11, 2015). "Industry Team Hopes To Resurrect Atlas V Post RD-180". Aviation Week & Space Technology.
206. Foust, Jeff. (September 11, 2020). "ULA studying long-term upgrades to Vulcan".
207. (August 26, 2021). "ULA stops selling its centerpiece Atlas V, setting path for the rocket's retirement". The Verge.