Atlas Launch Vehicle

This so-called evolved expendable launch vehicle is intended to be a workhorse for U.S. government launches for years to come. Atlas V vehicles can launch payloads weighing up to 20,500 kg (45,200 pounds) to low Earth orbit and up to 3,750 kg (8,250 pounds) to geostationary orbit; a heavier lift version of the Atlas V is also possible.

Atlas launch vehicle. The Atlas launch vehicle was an adaptation of the U.S. Air Force Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile. The modified Atlas launched the four manned orbital flights in Project Mercury and NASA used it with the Agena or Centaur upper stages for a variety of unmanned space missions. The launch of NASA’s next Mars rover mission has been delayed to no earlier than July 30 due to a launch vehicle issue, the latest in a series of slips. InSight Launched on an Atlas V-401. InSight launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's Pacific coast aboard a two-stage Atlas V-401 launch vehicle. This is one of the biggest rockets available for interplanetary flight. The rocket stands 188 feet (57.3 meters) tall, or about as tall as a 19-story building. The launch of NROL-44 has been on hold following a hot fire abort on Aug. 29 three seconds before the vehicle was scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

For the USAF Complementary Expendable Launch Vehicle (CELV) competition in 1984, General Dynamics proposed a formidable Atlas "II" Centaur G-Prime launch vehicle that would have lifted nearly 5 tonnes (metric tons) directly to GEO, more than 9 tonnes to GTO, or about 18 tonnes to LEO. The Atlas V launch vehicle is an intermediate- to heavy-lift vehicle, depending on configuration, and is manufactured by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. ULA also markets the Atlas V to U.S. Government customers. Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services (LMCLS) brokers commercial Atlas V launches. The Atlas V family of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV) represents ULA's commitment to enhanced competitive launch services for the U.S. government. Since their debut in August 2002, Atlas V vehicles have achieved 100 percent mission success over more than 70 launches. On Atlas V CCB, the station plane value is zero at the bottom of the rocket and increase as you move up the vehicle or forward. Drawing Numbers Atlas legacy numbers followed the xx-xxxxx-x format where the first two numbers are a program prefix, the middle set is a basic number and the final set is a dash number on the drawing.

Atlas V is the newest member in the Atlas launch vehicle evolution. The Atlas˜V launch vehicle family integrates the Centaur III second stage and a newly developed, structurally stable, 3.83˜meter (12.6˜feet) diameter Common Core Booster™ (CCB) with RD-180 main engine. The Atlas˜V vehicles were developed to meet Air Force Evolved. Consider the case of a contemporary commercial airliner (A380 or 787) or launch vehicle (Atlas V or Delta IV). Nonrecurring costs for a new design or model, before the first article even rolls out, runs in the billions - $10 billion for the new airliners, $1 to $2 billion for the evolved launch vehicles. Atlas is a family of US missiles and space launch vehicles that originated with the SM-65 Atlas.The Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program was initiated in the late 1950s under the Convair Division of General Dynamics. Atlas was a liquid propellant rocket burning RP-1 fuel with liquid oxygen in three engines configured in an unusual "stage-and-a-half" or "parallel staging. ATLAS V - Vehicle use: Satellite, Cygnus, CST-100 (future) American orbital launch vehicle. The Atlas V launch vehicle system uses a standard common core booster, up to five solid rocket boosters, a Centaur upper stage in a single- or dual-engine configuration, and one of several sizes of payload fairings.

Launch Vehicle on Stand: Atlas V Mars 2020 United Launch Alliance (ULA) hoists its Atlas V onto the mobile launch platform (MLP) at the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to begin preparations to launch NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover for the Mars 2020 mission. Date: November 18 Mission: Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) Launch Vehicle: Atlas V Launch Site: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Launch Pad: Space Launch Complex 41 Launch Time: 1:28 p.m. EST A United Launch Alliance Atlas V lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to send the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN. Launch Vehicle on Stand: Atlas V Mars 2020. United Launch Alliance (ULA) hoists its Atlas V onto the mobile launch platform (MLP) at the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to begin preparations to launch NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover for the Mars 2020 mission. When missions demand additional thrust at liftoff, Atlas integrates up to three Aerojet Rocketdyne solid rocket boosters (SRBs) on the Atlas V 400 series launch vehicle and up to five SRBs on the Atlas V 500 series vehicles.

Atlas V Launch Vehicle: The ULA's Atlas V Family of launch vehicles was first deployed in August 2002. Atlas V vehicles are launched from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and Space Launch Complex 3E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, thus providing launch pads on both U.S. coasts. Launch Movies. MPEG, short (1 MB) QuickTime (16 MB, Apple Video Compression [c. 1995]) QuickTime (32 MB, 320 x 240, H.264) QuickTime (9 MB, H.264) SOHO/ATLAS-IIAS KEY PARAMETERS. The launch vehicle for this mission was a two stage Atlas-IIAS (Atlas/Centaur). At liftoff, the vehicle is approximately 47.4m long, 4m in diameter and weights 236 268 kg. An Atlas D/Agena D launch vehicle (Atlas 216D), carrying the second set of Vela Nuclear Detection Satellites, was launched from Cape Canaveral and placed the satellites in their prescribed orbits. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A). The Atlas LV-3B, Atlas D Mercury Launch Vehicle or Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle, was a human-rated expendable launch system used as part of the United States Project Mercury to send astronauts into low Earth orbit.Manufactured by American aircraft manufacturing company Convair, it was derived from the SM-65D Atlas missile, and was a member of the Atlas family of rockets.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission had a total launch mass, including the Atlas V-541 that lifted it away from Earth, of about 531,000 kilograms (1.17 million pounds). Mars 2020 launched on an Atlas V-541, an intermediate-class launch vehicle.