![]() The Atlas V's first stage is called the Common Core Booster (CCB), which continues to use the Energomash RD-180 introduced in the Atlas III, but employs a rigid framework instead of balloon tanks. Atlas V is built in Decatur, Alabama, and maintains two launch sites: Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Space Launch Complex 3-E at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Lockheed Martin continued to market the Atlas V to commercial customers until September 2021, when it announced that the rocket will be retired after fulfilling the remaining 29 launch contracts. In 2006, operation was transferred to United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The first was launched on August 21, 2002. The Atlas V, currently in service, was developed by Lockheed Martin as part of the US Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. Launch of an Atlas V 401 carrying the LRO and LCROSS Tabulated Model nameĭevelopment was essentially identical to Atlas-Agena, and cancelled accordingly in 1959 The last refurbished Atlas-F vehicle was launched from Vandenberg AFB in 1995 carrying a satellite for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. Ītlas E/F was used to launch the Block I series of GPS satellites from 1978 to 1985. The last Atlas E/F launch to use a rocket which had originally been built as an Atlas-F was conducted on 23 June 1981. ![]() The last Atlas E/F spacecraft launch was conducted on 24 March 1995, using a rocket which had originally been built as an Atlas-E. SM-65B Atlas SCORE launch įollowing retirement as an ICBM, the Atlas-E, along with the Atlas-F, was refurbished for orbital launches. Missiles converted into Atlas E/F "space boosters" were used to launch the early "Block I" GPS satellites. Many were eventually converted to orbital launch vehicles after they were removed from service as missiles. The SM-65 Atlas was used as a first stage for satellite launch vehicles for half a century. This was the original use of WD-40 water displacement oil. In order to save weight they were not painted and needed a specially designed oil to prevent rust. ![]() It was pressure in the tanks that gave the rigidity required for space flight. The rockets were made from very thin stainless steel that offered minimal or no rigid support. The Atlas booster was unusual in its use of "balloon" tanks. The Atlas boosters would collapse under their own weight if not kept pressurized with nitrogen gas in the tanks when devoid of propellants. Approximately 350 Atlas missiles were built. The first successful test launch of an SM-65 Atlas missile was on 17 December 1957. ![]() The Atlas was used as an expendable launch system, with both the Agena and Centaur upper stages, for the Mariner space probes used to explore Mercury, Venus, and Mars (1962–1973) and to launch ten of the Mercury program missions (1962–1963). Launch vehicles based on original Atlas ICBM More than 300 Atlas launches have been conducted from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and 285 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Atlas V is still in service, with launches planned into the 2020s. There were only six launches of the succeeding Atlas III, all between 20. The Atlas-Centaur was evolved into the Atlas II, various models of which were launched 63 times between 19. The Atlas-Agena and Atlas-Centaur satellite launch vehicles were also derived directly from the original Atlas. However, from 1962 to 1963 Atlas boosters launched the first four US astronauts to orbit the Earth (in contrast to the preceding two Redstone suborbital launches). The missiles saw only brief ICBM service, and the last squadron was taken off operational alert in 1965. It also reflected the parent company of Convair, the Atlas Corporation. Using the name of a mighty titan from Greek mythology reflected the missile's place as the biggest and most powerful at the time. The Atlas name was originally proposed by Karel Bossart and his design team working at Convair on project MX-1593. Atlas was a liquid propellant rocket burning RP-1 kerosene fuel with liquid oxygen in three engines configured in an unusual "stage-and-a-half" or "parallel staging" design: two outboard booster engines were jettisoned along with supporting structures during ascent, while the center sustainer engine, propellant tanks and other structural elements remained connected through propellant depletion and engine shutdown. The Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program was initiated in the late 1950s under the Convair Division of General Dynamics. National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationĪtlas is a family of US missiles and space launch vehicles that originated with the SM-65 Atlas.
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