Enlarge / Liftoff of ULA’s Atlas V rocket on the US Srate Force’s USSF-51 objective.
United Launch Alliance provided a categorized UnitedStates military payload to orbit Tuesday for the last time with an Atlas V rocket, ending the Pentagon’s usage of Russian rocket engines as nationwide security objectives shift to all-American launchers.
The Atlas V rocket raised off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 6: 45 am EDT (10: 45 UTC) Tuesday, moved by a Russian-made RD-180 engine and 5 strap-on solid-fueled boosters in its most effective setup. This was the 101st launch of an Atlas V rocket giventhat its launching in 2002, and the 58th and last Atlas V objective with a UnitedStates nationwide security payload because 2007.
The US Sspeed Force’s Space Systems Command validated a effective conclusion to the objective, code-named USSF-51, on Tuesday afternoon. The rocket’s Centaur upper phase launched the top trick USSF-51 payload about 7 hours after liftoff, mostlikely in a high-altitude geostationary orbit over the equator. The military did not advertise the precise specs of the rocket’s target orbit.
“What a wonderful launch and a fitting conclusion for our last nationwide security area Atlas V (launch),” stated Walt Lauderdale, USSF-51 objective director at Space Systems Command, in a post-launch press release. “When we appearance back at how well Atlas V fulfilled our requires because our veryfirst launch in 2007, it shows the difficult work and devotion from our country’s commercial base. Together, we made it occur, and since of groups like this, we have the most effective and prospering launch market in the world, bar none.”
RD-180’s long bye-bye
The launch Tuesday earlymorning was the end of an age born in the 1990s when UnitedStates federalgovernment policy permitted Lockheed Martin, the initial designer of the Atlas V, to usage Russian rocket engines throughout its veryfirst phase. There was a prevalent belief in the veryfirst years after the fall of the Soviet Union that the United States and other Western countries oughtto partner with Russia to keep the nation’s aerospace employees used and avoid “rogue states” like Iran or North Korea from hiring them.