Atlas V Variants Credit - © Mark Wade Media Gallery

The Atlas V launch vehicle system is based on the 3.8-m (12.5-ft) diameter Common Core Booster (CCB) powered by a single RD-180 engine. When combined with a standard Atlas payload fairing, the configuration is part of the Atlas V 400 series. The Atlas V 500 series combines the CCB with a larger and 5 m diameter payload fairing derived from that used on the Ariane 5 vehicle The Atlas V 500 series can also tailor performance by incorporating from zero to five solid rocket boosters (SRB).

Both Atlas V 400 and 500 configurations incorporate a stretched version of the Centaur upper stage (CIII), which can be configured as a single-engine Centaur (SEC) or a dual engine Centaur (DEC). The Atlas V family of launch vehicles can be launched from either Cape Canaveral Air Station Launch Complex 41 or Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 3W.

A three-digit naming convention was developed for the Atlas V launch vehicle system to identify it’s multiple configuration possibilities, and is indicated as follows: the first digit identifies the diameter class (in meters) of the payload fairing (4 or 5 m); the second digit indicates the number of solid rocket motors used (zero for Atlas V 400 and zero to five for Atlas V 500); the third digit represents the number of Centaur engines (one or two). Payload performance of the possible variants are as follows (note payloads over 9,050 kg would require structural modification to the basic vehicle):

Manufacturer: Convair. Launches: 10. Success Rate: 100.00%. First Launch Date: 2002-08-21. Last Launch Date: 2007-06-15. Launch data is: continuing. LEO Payload: 12,500 kg (27,500 lb). to: 185 km Orbit. at: 28.50 degrees. Payload: 5,000 kg (11,000 lb). to a: Geosynchronous transfer trajectory. Associated Spacecraft: AS 2100, Eurostar 2000, Spacebus 3000. Liftoff Thrust: 8,590.000 kN (1,931,100 lbf). Total Mass: 546,700 kg (1,205,200 lb). Core Diameter: 3.81 m (12.49 ft). Total Length: 58.30 m (191.20 ft). Span: 5.40 m (17.70 ft). Launch Price $: 138.000 million. in: 2004 price dollars. The originally estimated launch price in 1998 for the Atlas V 401 model was $77 million, the 500 series $ 110 million, and the HLV model $ 170 million. Due to the collapse of the commercial launch market, this was revised by the USAF in November 2004 to $ 138, $192, and $ 254 million respectively.

• Stage Number: 0. 5 x Stage: Atlas V SRB. Gross Mass: 40,824 kg (90,001 lb). Empty Mass: 4,000 kg (8,800 lb). Thrust (vac): 1,270.000 kN (285,500 lbf). Isp: 275 sec. Burn time: 94 sec. Isp(sl): 245 sec. Diameter: 1.55 m (5.08 ft). Span: 1.00 m (3.20 ft). Length: 17.70 m (58.00 ft). Propellants: Solid. No Engines: 1. Engine: Aerojet SRB. Status: In production. New SRB boosters in development for Atlas V. Empty mass, vacuum thrust, sea level Isp estimated.

• Stage Number: 1. 1 x Stage: Atlas CCB. Gross Mass: 306,914 kg (676,629 lb). Empty Mass: 22,461 kg (49,518 lb). Thrust (vac): 4,151.998 kN (933,406 lbf). Isp: 338 sec. Burn time: 253 sec. Isp(sl): 311 sec. Diameter: 3.81 m (12.49 ft). Span: 3.81 m (12.49 ft). Length: 32.46 m (106.49 ft). Propellants: Lox/Kerosene. No Engines: 1. Engine: RD-180. Status: In production. Common Core Booster uses Glushko RD-180 engine and new isogrid tanks. Used in Atlas IV/USAF EELV, Atlas V. Includes 272 kg booster interstage adapter and 1297 kg Centaur interstage adapter.

• Stage Number: 2. 1 x Stage: Centaur V1. Gross Mass: 22,825 kg (50,320 lb). Empty Mass: 2,026 kg (4,466 lb). Thrust (vac): 99.194 kN (22,300 lbf). Isp: 451 sec. Burn time: 894 sec. Diameter: 3.05 m (10.00 ft). Span: 3.05 m (10.00 ft). Length: 12.68 m (41.60 ft). Propellants: Lox/LH2. No Engines: 1. Engine: RL-10A-4-2. Status: In production. Centaur is powered by either one or two Pratt & Whitney RL10A-4-2 turbopump-fed engines burning liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. For typical, high-energy mission applications, Centaur will be configured with one RL10 engine. For heavy payload, low earth orbit missions, Centaur will use two RL10 engines to maximize boost phase mission performance. Guidance, tank pressurization, and propellant usage controls for both Atlas and Centaur phases are provided by the inertial navigation unit (INU) located on the Centaur forward equipment module.

2002 August 21 - 22:05 GMT - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: LC41. Launch Pad: SLC41. Launch Vehicle: Atlas V. LV Configuration: Atlas 5/401 s/n AV-001.

• Hot Bird 6 Nation: Europe. Program: Eutelsat. Mass: 3,905 kg (8,609 lb). Class: Communications. Spacecraft: Spacebus 3000. Agency: Eutelsat. Manufacturer: Alcatel Space. Perigee: 35,757 km (22,218 mi). Apogee: 35,814 km (22,253 mi). Inclination: 0.00 deg. Period: 1,436.10 min. COSPAR: 2002-038A. USAF Sat Cat: 27499. This was the maiden flight of the Atlas 5 EELV. Launch delayed from May 9, July 8 and 29, August 6 and 12 due to both payload and booster delays. Hot Bird 6 was a European (EUTELSAT) geostationary communications spacecraft. The 4.9-ton Hot Bird 6 (a Spacebus 3000B3) was to provide digital radio and television coverage to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East through its 28 Ku-band and four Ka-band transponders after being parked over 13° E longitude. As of 2007 Mar 4 located at 12.95E drifting at 0.012E degrees per day.References: 4, 552, 554.

• USAF to subsidise EELV's Nation: USA. The US Air Force asked the Congress to provide $1 billion of subsidies in 2004-2009 for the Atlas V and Delta 4 EELV launch vehicles. The collapse of the commercial satellite market invalidated the cost model on which the manufacturers invested their own funds in development. Lack of adequate sales could have meant the closure of the production line of one or both of the launch vehicles on which the US government would rely for future space missions. The US Air Force asked for a $200-million first tranche n FY2004.

• Hellas Sat 2 Nation: Greece. Mass: 3,440 kg (7,580 lb). Class: Communications. Spacecraft: Eurostar 2000. Agency: Hellas Sat Consortium. Perigee: 35,775 km (22,229 mi). Apogee: 35,800 km (22,200 mi). Inclination: 0.10 deg. Period: 1,436.20 min. COSPAR: 2003-020A. USAF Sat Cat: 27811. Launch delayed from January 30, March 11 and 14, May 10 and 12, 2003. Spacecraft former Intelsat KTV, NSS-KTV, NSS-6, Intelsat APR-3. As of 2007 Mar 8 located at 38.95E drifting at 0.006E degrees per day.

• Rainbow 1 (Cablevision 1) Nation: USA. Payload: A2100AX. Mass: 4,328 kg (9,541 lb). Class: Communications. Type: Direct Broadcasting. Spacecraft: AS 2100. Agency: Cablevision. Perigee: 35,779 km (22,231 mi). Apogee: 35,795 km (22,241 mi). Inclination: 0.10 deg. Period: 1,436.10 min. COSPAR: 2003-033A. USAF Sat Cat: 27852. Delayed from May 8 As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 61.68W drifting at 0.011W degrees per day.

• AMC-16 (GE-16) Nation: USA. Program: Americom. Payload: A2100AX. Mass: 4,200 kg (9,200 lb). Class: Communications. Spacecraft: AS 2100. Agency: SES Americom. Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin Commercial Space. Perigee: 35,781 km (22,233 mi). Apogee: 35,791 km (22,239 mi). Inclination: 0.10 deg. Period: 1,436.10 min. COSPAR: 2004-048A. USAF Sat Cat: 28472. AMC-16, like AMC-15, was a hybrid Ku/Ka-band satellite built by Lockheed Martin and based on the A2100 spacecraft platform. The spacecraft was to become operational in early 2005 from 85º West with a 15 year design life. The satellite carried 24 x 36 MHz/140 W Ku-band transponders and 12 x 125MHz/75 W spot beams. Coverage included the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii. Launch was delayed from December 6 and 16. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 118.75W drifting at 0.002W degrees per day.

• Inmarsat 4-F1 Nation: International. Program: Inmarsat. Payload: Inmarsat 4A / Eurostar 3000GM. Mass: 5,959 kg (13,137 lb). Class: Communications. Spacecraft: Eurostar 3000. Agency: Inmarsat. Manufacturer: EADS Astrium. Perigee: 35,562 km (22,097 mi). Apogee: 36,011 km (22,376 mi). Inclination: 3.00 deg. Period: 1,436.10 min. COSPAR: 2005-009A. USAF Sat Cat: 28628. Heaviest single payload to geosynchronous transfer orbit to that date. Delayed from October 2004, February 27, March 10, 2005. The satellite was to provide L-band mobile communications and wideband data transmission for Inmarsat's global network. As of 2007 Mar 11 located at 63.82E drifting at 0.000E degrees per day.

• Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Nation: USA. Mass: 2,180 kg (4,800 lb). Class: Planetary. Type: Mars. Spacecraft: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Agency: NASA/JPL. Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin Space Systems. COSPAR: 2005-029A. USAF Sat Cat: 28788. Transferred from Atlas 3B. Delayed from August 10 and 11, 2005.

• New Horizons Nation: USA. Mass: 478 kg (1,053 lb). Class: Planetary. Type: Pluto. Spacecraft: New Horizons. Agency: NASA/JPL. Manufacturer: JHU-APL. COSPAR: 2006-001A. USAF Sat Cat: 28928. Last robotic mission to an unexplored planet in our solar system. New Horizons was due to receive a gravity boost from Jupiter in February 2007, then fly by Pluto in 2015. During launch toward Jupiter it reached a higher velocity than any manmade object, and was the first to be boosted directly to solar escape velocity. The trajectory had a perihelion of 0.98 AU, an inclination of 0.87 deg and an eccentricity of 1.03. After the Jupiter encounter it was to have a perihelion of 2.2 AU, an inclination of 2.3 deg and an eccentricity of 1.40. At encounter with Pluto on July 14, 2015, the spacecraft would be 1.1 AU above the ecliptic plane and 32.9 AU from the Sun, leaving the solar system toward the star Xi Sgr.

• Astra 1KR Nation: Luxembourg. Program: Astra. Payload: A2100AX. Mass: 4,332 kg (9,550 lb). Class: Communications. Spacecraft: AS 2100. Agency: SES Astra. Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin. Perigee: 35,631 km (22,140 mi). Apogee: 35,696 km (22,180 mi). Inclination: 0.10 deg. Period: 1,429.80 min. COSPAR: 2006-012A. USAF Sat Cat: 29055. The first Centaur upper stage burn placed the stack into a 167 km x 22442 km x 24.8 deg transfer orbit. After a second burn the Centaur released the satellite into a 6470 km x 36240 km x 23.8 deg orbit, from which it would use its own engine to achieve final geosynchronous orbit. As of 2007 Mar 10 located at 19.18E drifting at 0.022W degrees per day.

• Astro Nation: USA. Mass: 1,090 kg (2,400 lb). Class: Technology. Type: Rendezvous. Spacecraft: Orbital Express Astro. Agency: DARPA. Manufacturer: Boeing. Perigee: 491 km (305 mi). Apogee: 498 km (309 mi). Inclination: 46.00 deg. Period: 94.50 min. COSPAR: 2007-006A. USAF Sat Cat: 30772. The active satellite portion of DARPA's Orbital Express satellite servicing experiment. Following operational tests while still joined or grappled together, the first 10-m distance Nextsat free flight and redocking by Astro was conducted on 5 May. On the second free-flight test on 11 May a serious computer failure left the two spacecraft 6 km apart. The problem was solved, revised software was uploaded to Astro, and it redocked with Nextsat on 19 May.

• Midstar 1 Nation: USA. Mass: 120 kg (260 lb). Class: Technology. Spacecraft: Midstar. Agency: USN Postgraduate School. Manufacturer: USNA. Perigee: 495 km (307 mi). Apogee: 498 km (309 mi). Inclination: 46.00 deg. Period: 94.50 min. COSPAR: 2007-006B. USAF Sat Cat: 30773. MidSTAR-1 was flown under the DoD Space Test Program and carried the Internet Communications Satellite (ICSat) Experiment (SERB 2002-39) and the Configurable Fault Tolerant Processor (CFTP) Experiment for the Naval Postgraduate School (SERB 2002-34). Planned mission duration was two years.

• NextSat Nation: USA. Mass: 250 kg (550 lb). Class: Technology. Type: Rendezvous. Spacecraft: RS-300. Agency: DARPA. Manufacturer: Ball. Perigee: 491 km (305 mi). Apogee: 498 km (309 mi). Inclination: 46.00 deg. Period: 94.50 min. COSPAR: 2007-006C. USAF Sat Cat: 30774. The passive satellite portion of DARPA's Orbital Express satellite servicing experiment. NextSat carried hydrazine for fluid transfer experiments, but no propulsion system. Attitude was controlled by momentum wheels supplemented by magnetic torquer rods.

• STPSat-1 Nation: USA. Mass: 170 kg (370 lb). Class: Technology. Agency: USAFRL. Manufacturer: AeroAstro. Perigee: 558 km (346 mi). Apogee: 560 km (340 mi). Inclination: 35.40 deg. Period: 95.80 min. COSPAR: 2007-006D. USAF Sat Cat: 30775. STPSat carried experiments to study the Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere and radiation environment. It also released the two MEPSI picosatellites.

• Falconsat-3 Nation: USA. Mass: 50 kg (110 lb). Class: Technology. Agency: USAF Academy. Manufacturer: USAF Academy. Perigee: 558 km (346 mi). Apogee: 559 km (347 mi). Inclination: 35.40 deg. Period: 95.80 min. COSPAR: 2007-006E. USAF Sat Cat: 30776. USAF Academy student satellite with ionospheric experiments and plasma atttiude control thrusters.

• CFESat Nation: USA. Payload: Heavily modified Surrey MicroSat-100. Mass: 159 kg (350 lb). Class: Technology. Spacecraft: MicroSat-100. Agency: LANL. Manufacturer: Surrey. Perigee: 558 km (346 mi). Apogee: 563 km (349 mi). Inclination: 35.40 deg. Period: 95.90 min. COSPAR: 2007-006F. USAF Sat Cat: 30777. The Cibola Flight Experiment satellites carried eight new technologies for space flight validation, including a new power supply, inflatable antennas, deployable booms, a new type of launch-vehicle separation system, and a high-density pack of AA lithium-ion batteries. Cibola's on-board field programmable gate array supercomputer processed data onboard, then beamed only the results rather than the raw data to the ground. The Cibola also had a science mission: the study of lightning, ionospheric disturbances, and other sources of radio frequency (RF) atmospheric noise.

• MEPSI Picosat Nation: USA. Mass: 1.00 kg (2.20 lb). Class: Technology. Spacecraft: Cubesat. Agency: DARPA. Manufacturer: Aerospace. Perigee: 558 km (346 mi). Apogee: 563 km (349 mi). Inclination: 35.40 deg. COSPAR: 2007-006x. Released from STPSat.

• MEPSI Picosat Nation: USA. Mass: 1.00 kg (2.20 lb). Class: Technology. Spacecraft: Cubesat. Agency: DARPA. Manufacturer: Aerospace. Perigee: 558 km (346 mi). Apogee: 563 km (349 mi). Inclination: 35.40 deg. Period: 1,436.10 min. COSPAR: 2007-006x. Released from STPSat.

• USA 194 Nation: USA. Class: SIGINT. Spacecraft: NOSS-3. Agency: NRO. Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin. Perigee: 776 km (482 mi). Apogee: 1,246 km (774 mi). Inclination: 63.00 deg. COSPAR: 2007-027A. USAF Sat Cat: 31701. Classified National Reconnaissance Office mission. There appeared to be problem in the second burn of the Centaur upper stage. Amateur observors believed that two satellites were to be have been deployed in 1150 km altitude, 63 deg inclination, but that only a 776 km x 1246 km was achieved. However it was believed that the payloads could reach the final intended orbits using on-board propulsion

• USA 195 Nation: USA. Payload: WGS SV-1. Class: Communications. Spacecraft: HS 702. Perigee: 32,586 km (20,247 mi). Apogee: 39,016 km (24,243 mi). Inclination: 0.20 deg. Period: 1,436.80 min. COSPAR: 2007-046A. USAF Sat Cat: 32258. First USAF Wideband Global Satcom satellite, designed to replace the DSCS series, was placed by the Atlas booster in an initial 477 km x 66,847 km x 20.1 deg geosynchronous transfer orbit. The satellite carried X-band and Ka-band communications payloads.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.

• Atlas Launch System Mission Planner's Guide, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, January 1999.