ULA Will Launch The Last Military Charge Of The Atlas V Rocket

Illustration of the launch of the Atlas V ULA rocket (photo: dock. ULA)

JAKARTA United Launch Alliance (ULA), the rocket launch service provider, will launch the last Atlas V rocket on July 30. The rocket used since 2002 will carry cargo belonging to the US military. The payload to be carried is the USSF-51. There is no detailed information on this payload, what its task is or what its size is, because all the information is kept secret. The company only shared information such as the date and location of the launch. USSF-51 will take off from the 41 Space Launch Complex in Cape Canaveral at 6.45 local time. The charge under the contract of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 will be brought to geostationary orbit (GEO). Initially, the USSF-51 was scheduled to fly alongside the French Centaur. The rocket was designed to replace Atlas V and Delta 4, but the manufacture of these rockets encountered several constraints. Therefore, ULA replaced the rocket for the USSF-51 mission with Atlas V. Gary Wentz, Vice President of the ULA Government and Commercial Program, told SpaceNews that Atlas V was more promising and secure compared to the certification and launch.

"Due to the criticism of the spacecraft we launched, we chose to move it fromition to Atlas for better schedule certainty," Wentz said. The USSF-51 payload launch mission is the last mission for Atlas V under the NSSL program. After this, Atlas V will not be used for military purposes and will only focus on commercial and non-restriction missions. There are 16 missions that Atlas V will have to carry out over the future, including manned launches. ULA will spend the entire Atlas V rocket from inventory before switching to rockets they are developing.