ULA prepares for ultimate army launch of Atlas 5 rocket

WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance (ULA) is ready to launch its ultimate Atlas 5 rocket for the U.S. army on July 30.

The labeled payload, designated USSF-51, is scheduled to carry off at 6:45 a.m. Japanese from House Launch Complicated 41 at Cape Canaveral House Drive Station, sure for geostationary Earth orbit.

This mission shall be ULA’s a centesimal nationwide safety launch and the Atlas 5’s 53rd.

USSF-51 additionally represents the primary ULA launch beneath the Nationwide Safety House Launch (NSSL) Part 2 contract, awarded by the House Drive to ULA and SpaceX in 2020. Whereas SpaceX launched its first Part 2 mission in January 2023, ULA’s schedule has been disrupted by improvement points with its next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket.

The Vulcan Centaur, designed to switch each the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets, guarantees elevated efficiency and suppleness for a variety of missions. Nevertheless, its improvement encountered setbacks, pushing its debut launch to January 2024 and delaying its certification for nationwide safety missions.

Initially, USSF-51 was slated to fly on Vulcan as a part of the Part 2 contract however the mission was reassigned to the confirmed Atlas 5.

“Due to the criticality of the spacecraft that we’re placing up. we elected to transition it from Vulcan to Atlas for extra schedule certainty.” Gary Wentz, ULA’s vp of presidency and business applications, instructed SpaceNews.

Whereas the Atlas 5 is bidding farewell to the NSSL program, its profession is much from over. ULA has plans for a further 16 business and non-defense missions, together with crewed launches, using the remaining Atlas rockets in its stock.

As ULA works in the direction of Vulcan’s certification, two NSSL missions are already in numerous phases of preparation for launches on the brand new rocket, tentatively scheduled for late 2024, pending the completion of a second Vulcan certification launch scheduled for September.

Transition to Vulcan

Gary Wentz, ULA’s vp of presidency and business applications, spoke concerning the deliberate transition from Atlas 5 to the Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Wentz acknowledged the House Drive’s issues about Vulcan’s readiness and ULA’s skill to fulfill the demanding launch schedule required by the Part 2 contract. “We perceive the challenges forward,” Wentz acknowledged, as ULA has to finish 26 nationwide safety launches from the corporate’s East and West Coast launch pads by the tip of fiscal 12 months 2027.

To accommodate nationwide safety and business launches, ULA plans to extend its launch cadence to twice month-to-month. Wentz defined, “We’re updating House Launch Complicated 41 to help each Atlas and Vulcan operations,” he stated. This dual-capability is essential for the transition interval, he stated.

The corporate’s technique includes interspersing the remaining Atlas 5 launches with the brand new Vulcan missions. “We’ve got 16 remaining Atlases to fly, and these shall be interwoven with Vulcan flights,” Wentz stated. “Our methods are designed to accommodate this flexibility.”

These remaining Atlas 5 rockets are slated to launch satellites for Amazon’s Kuiper broadband constellation and NASA crew missions to the Worldwide House Station.

Wanting forward, Wentz recognized USSF-106 and USSF-87 as Vulcan’s first two nationwide safety missions. “Over the subsequent couple of years, we’ll work via the backlog on each East and West Coasts for our assigned Part 2 missions,” he added.

To facilitate this transition, ULA has reconfigured its launch advanced with a dual-track system. Wentz elaborated, “This enables us to assemble each Atlas and Vulcan rockets in parallel, sharing the identical launch pad. With this setup, we’ll be able to launching each 5 to 6 days as wanted.”

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