Atlas V
Atlas V is an orbital launch vehicle used by the United Launch Alliance (made of two companies, Boeing and Lockheed Martin) to place satellites into orbit. It is a rocket 58.3 metres (191 feet) tall, and 3.81 metres (12.5 feet) wide. It has flown 79 times, since its first flight on August 21, 2002. It was developed from the Atlas (missile). Unlike the Space Shuttle, Atlas V is only used once, with a new rocket being built for each flight.
Function | EELV/medium-heavy launch vehicle |
---|---|
Manufacturer | United Launch Alliance |
Country of origin | United States |
Cost per launch | US$110 million in 2016 |
Size | |
Height | 58.3 m (191 ft) |
Diameter | 3.81 m (12.5 ft) |
Mass | 590,000 kg (1,300,000 lb) |
Stages | 2 |
Capacity | |
Payload to LEO | [convert: %s]%s |
Payload to GTO | [convert: %s]%s |
Associated rockets | |
Family | Atlas (rocket family) |
Comparable | |
Launch history | |
Status | Active |
Launch sites | Cape Canaveral SLC-41 |
Total launches | 97 (401: 41, 411: 6, 421: 9 431: 3) (501: 7, 521: 2, 531: 5, 541: 9, 551: 12, N22: 2) |
Successes | 95 (401: 39, 411: 6, 421: 9, 431: 3) (501: 7, 521: 2, 531: 5, 541: 9, 551: 12 N22: 2) |
Partial failures | 2 (401 – low orbit, customer declared success)[1] |
First flight | 21 August 2002 (Hot Bird 6) |
Last flight | 10 November 2022 (JPSS-2, LOFTID) |
Notable payloads | |
Boosters – AJ-60A[2] | |
No. boosters | 0 to 5 |
Length | 17.0 m (669 in)[2] |
Diameter | 1.6 m (62 in)[2] |
Gross mass | 46,697 kg (102,949 lb) |
Propellant mass | 42,630 kg (93,980 lb) [3] |
Thrust | 1,688.4 kN (379,600 lbf) |
Specific impulse | 279.3 s (2.739 km/s) |
Burn time | 94 seconds |
Fuel | HTPB |
First stage – Atlas CCB | |
Length | 32.46 m (106.5 ft) |
Diameter | 3.81 m (12.5 ft) |
Empty mass | 21,054 kg (46,416 lb) |
Propellant mass | 284,089 kg (626,309 lb) |
Engines | 1 RD-180 |
Thrust | 3,827 kN (860,000 lbf) (SL) 4,152 kN (933,000 lbf) (vac) |
Specific impulse | 311.3 s (3.053 km/s) (SL) 337.8 s (3.313 km/s) (vac) |
Burn time | 253 seconds |
Fuel | RP-1 / LOX |
Second stage – Centaur | |
Length | 12.68 m (41.6 ft) |
Diameter | 3.05 m (10.0 ft) |
Empty mass | 2,316 kg (5,106 lb) |
Propellant mass | 20,830 kg (45,920 lb) |
Engines | 1 RL10A or 1 RL10C |
Thrust | 99.2 kN (22,300 lbf) (RL10A) |
Specific impulse | 450.5 s (4.418 km/s) (RL10A-4-2) |
Burn time | 842 seconds (RL10A-4-2) |
Fuel | LH2 / LOX |
The rocket is made of the first stage, a Common Core Booster with an RD-180 engine from Russia. Every Atlas V has this as the first stage. The second stage is called Centaur, and has one/two RL-10 engines from Aerojet Rocketdyne. On top is a 4–5-metre (13–16-foot) wide fairing covering the spacecraft during launch.
Flights
As of 2023 Atlas V has made 97 flights. The most famous ones carried the New Horizons, Mars Science Laboratory (which had the Curiosity rover in it), Juno, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LCROSS, the Boeing X-37B, the Mars 2020 mission which carried the Perseverance rover and the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity, Boeing's CST-100 Starliner.
Variants
The Atlas V has a special way of naming the different kinds. The Atlas V nomenclature for numbering the variants goes like this: The first number says how wide the fairing is. A 400 series Atlas V has a 4-meter wide fairing. A 500 series Atlas V has a 5-meter wide fairing. An Atlas V N22 have no fairing since it will be the launch configuration for the Boeing's CST-100 Starliner. second number says how many strap-on solid rocket boosters the rocket has. An Atlas V 501 has no strap-on boosters, an Atlas V 441 has 4 strap-on boosters, while the Atlas V N22 has two strap-on boosters, which will be the Boeing Starliner launch configuration. The last number says how many engines the Centaur second stage has. All of the Atlas V rockets flown have had only 1 engine on the Centaur, but in the future other Atlas V rockets will have 2 engines on the Centaur upper stage, such as the Atlas V N22 that I frequently mentioned in this article. There is also the HLV which has two of the first stage (Common Core Booster) strapped on like strap-on boosters, but it has never flown.
Atlas V Media
X-37B OTV-1 (Orbital Test Vehicle) being encased in its payload fairing for its 22 April 2010, launch.
An Atlas V 551 with the New Horizons probe launches from Launch Pad 41 in Cape Canaveral.
Related pages
References
- ↑ Gunter's Space Page – Atlas V (401). Space.skyrocket.de. Retrieved on 2011-11-19. Archived 2013-05-01 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Atlas V Solid Rocket Motor". Aerojet Rocketdyne. Archived from the original on March 14, 2017. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
- ↑ "Space Launch Report: Atlas 5 Data Sheet". Space Launch Report. October 15, 2017.