ULA Stops Selling Atlas Rocket Launches

Video from the channel Scott Manley about Atlas (familia), linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 11:26. Language: English. Video type: News.

Commentary on United Launch Alliance's announcement, confirmed by its CEO Tory Bruno: all remaining Atlas V vehicles have been sold and no more will be offered. 29 launches remain, split between NASA, the Department of Defense, and commercial customers. Among them, around seven for Starliner and nine for Amazon's Project Kuiper.

Atlas and Delta descend from the ballistic missiles of the 1950s and have been the backbone of U.S. launches for decades. The Atlas V uses the Russian RD-180 engine, burning kerosene and liquid oxygen in an oxidizer-rich closed-cycle design, which arrived in the United States in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union. It debuted on the Atlas III, with six launches since 2000. The RD-180 derives from the RD-170 used on Energia's strap-on boosters. The commentator highlights the Atlas V's reliability and recalls a Cygnus flight in which the first stage shut down five seconds early, a shortfall the Centaur made up for.

National security payloads can no longer fly on the RD-180, with a deadline set for 2022, so ULA needs to bring the Vulcan into service. It will use Blue Origin's BE-4 engines, burning methane and liquid oxygen, which had not yet been delivered for integration. According to the video, before the decade is out the Atlas, the Delta IV, and also the Proton — to be replaced by the Angara — will stop flying.