United Release Alliance’s (ULA) venerable Atlas V rocket flew its ultimate nationwide safety venture on Tuesday morning (July 30).The Atlas V introduced from Florida’s Canaveral House Pressure Station on Tuesday at 6:45 a.m. EDT (1045 GMT), on a labeled venture for the U.S. House Pressure referred to as USSF-51. 
United Release Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket lifts off from Florida’s Canaveral House Pressure Station on at 6:45 a.m. EDT (1045 GMT) on July 30. (Symbol credit score: ULA)USSF-51 is a landmark venture: It used to be the final nationwide safety house release (NSSL) for a member of the Atlas rocket circle of relatives, which has been flying since 1957. (It used to be additionally the one hundredth nationwide safety venture for ULA total, in step with the corporate.)Comparable: Info about ULA’s workhorse Atlas V rocket”The House Pressure Atlas V group has an excellent document of serving our Nationwide Safety House raise wishes,” Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel chief for Release Execution Delta, a part of the House Pressure’s House Techniques Command (SSC), stated in an emailed observation on Friday (July 25). “We have now all the time labored extraordinarily smartly with this group, and this venture, our final release with the Atlas V, is having a look nice!” Horne added.The Atlas V debuted in 2002 and has flown 100 missions thus far. The one hundredth release, which happened final month, used to be a notable one, sending Boeing’s Starliner tablet towards the Global House Station with two NASA astronauts aboard. It used to be the primary crewed flight for each Atlas V and Starliner.Breaking house information, the most recent updates on rocket launches, skywatching occasions and extra!The workhorse rocket flew its first U.S. nationwide safety venture in 2007, then racked up greater than 50 different such flights through the years.”The Atlas V release device has been the stalwart for nationwide safety launches during the last two decades,” Walt Lauderdale, USSF-51 venture director, stated in the similar observation. “This venture, in conjunction with all the ones previous, demonstrates the Atlas V built-in executive/trade group’s dedication to securely ship important belongings to house.”Whilst it would possibly not fly to any extent further nationwide safety missions after Tuesday, the Atlas V is not rather in a position for retirement. It nonetheless has 15 extra launches on its docket, maximum of which is able to loft both Starliner or satellites for Amazon’s deliberate Undertaking Kuiper broadband constellation.The House Pressure, in the meantime, plans to make use of ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket for NSSL launches after the car is qualified. (Vulcan has one liftoff underneath its belt — the release of Astrobotic’s Peregrine moon lander in January of this yr. The release used to be a hit, however Peregrine bumped into issues in a while after deploying into house and didn’t succeed in the moon as deliberate.)We all know little or no in regards to the payload(s) flying on USSF-51. That is infrequently sudden, for the reason that it is a labeled nationwide safety venture.
