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Launch Vehicles
Vehicle family profile

Atlas

Family-level launch record combining canonical variants, historical missions, public cadence forecasts, and available payload performance specs.

Manufacturer unknownRetired
Admin
Variants
27
Canonical variants linked to this family.
Historical missions
326
Missions in the public mission table with actual launch dates.
Peak listed capacity
Unknown
Maximum payload capacity across listed variants and orbits.

Launch Cadence

Historical missions are grouped by actual launch year. Forecast cadence uses family-level launch-rate rows.

YearHistorical missionsForecast launches
199860
199950
200080
200140
200240
200330
200450
200510

Performance Specs

Payload capacity by variant and target orbit when structured capacity rows are available.

VariantOrbitCapacityAltitudeInclinationSource

No performance specs

No structured payload capacity rows are linked to this vehicle family.

Recent Missions

Latest launched missions using variants in this family.

MissionVariantLaunch
USA 181 [NOSS16]
Atlas 3B SEC
Feb 3, 2005
USA 179 [SDS15]
Atlas IIAS
Aug 31, 2004
AMC-11
Atlas IIAS
May 19, 2004
Superbird 6

Variants

Canonical variants rolled up into this launch vehicle family.

VariantStagesMissionsStatus
Atlas 3A
Not stated2Retired
Atlas 3B DEC
Not stated1Retired
Atlas 3B SEC
Not stated3Retired
Atlas Able
Not stated3Retired
Atlas IIAS
Apr 16, 2004
MBSAT Mission
Atlas 3A
Mar 13, 2004
AMC-10
Atlas IIAS
Feb 5, 2004
USA 174 (UHF F11)
Atlas 3B SEC
Dec 18, 2003
USA 173 [NOSS15]
Atlas IIAS
Dec 2, 2003

Forecasted Missions

Upcoming mission rows with announced launch timing.

MissionVariantAnnounced

No forecasted missions

No upcoming announced mission rows are linked to this vehicle family.

Atlas Agena A
Not stated4Retired
Atlas Agena B
Not stated28Retired
Atlas Agena D
Not stated15Retired
Atlas B
Not stated1Retired
Atlas Burner 2
Not stated2Retired
Atlas Centaur
Not stated4Retired
Atlas Centaur D
Not stated7Retired
Atlas D
Not stated14Retired
Atlas E
Not stated22Retired
Atlas E Altair
Not stated1Retired
Atlas F
Not stated22Retired
Atlas G Centaur
Not stated7Retired
Atlas H
Not stated5Retired
Atlas I
Not stated11Retired
Atlas II
Not stated10Retired
Atlas IIA
Not stated23Retired
Atlas IIAS
Not stated30Retired
Atlas SLV-3
Not stated1Retired
Atlas SLV-3A Agena D
Not stated12Retired
Atlas SLV-3 Agena B
Not stated1Retired
Atlas SLV-3 Agena D
Not stated48Retired
Atlas SLV-3C Centaur
Not stated17Retired
Atlas SLV-3D Centaur
Not stated32Retired
Track
Mentions
402
All verified mentions of this launch vehicle family in source documents.
0.0-5.0
Actions

The Atlas-Centaur exceeded the Saturn I to orbit on January 29, 1964.

CapabilityGeneralValue 3.0Mar 11, 2024The difficult early life of the Centaur upper stage

United Launch Alliance was created in 2006 through a merger of Boeing’s Delta rocket division and Lockheed Martin’s Atlas launcher rocket family.

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RelationshipsValue 4.0Feb 25, 2024Forrester’s Digest: Bezos is eyeing United Launch Alliance

TNO is designing and building the measurement instruments that will fly in TANGO and is creating an emissions atlas.

CapabilityGeneralValue 4.0Feb 21, 2024ESA selects Dutch satellite system TANGO for emission monitoring

ESP Ocean integrates with more than 7,000 Esri Living Atlas data layers, including current and projected weather impacts, geopolitical risks, seasonal peaks, shipping lane congestion, and port congestion.

CapabilityGeneralValue 4.0Jan 15, 2024ESP Logistics Launches Platform to Track Ships

Vulcan Centaur is critical to ULA’s future as it phases out the Atlas and Delta vehicles.

PlanGrowthValue 2.3Jan 2, 2024The year new launch vehicles finally lift off

Karman Space & Defense continues to manufacture and support Atlas launches and support future Vulcan launches.

CapabilityPlanValue 3.5Dec 7, 2023Karman Space & Defense Marks Key Contribution to NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission Success

Launch Complex 14 was the launch site of NASA’s Mercury-Atlas 6 flight in 1962.

GeneralValue 4.0Oct 8, 2023Stoke Space has million$$$ in new investments

Launch Complex 14 was the launch site of NASA’s Mercury-Atlas 6 flight in 1962.

GeneralValue 4.0Oct 6, 2023Stoke Space Announces $100 Million in New Series B Investment

Launch Complex 14 was the launch site of NASA’s Mercury-Atlas 6 flight in 1962.

CapabilityGeneralValue 4.0Oct 5, 2023Stoke Space Announces $100 Million in New Investment

By 1971, the final SPIN SCAN design would have weighed 726 kilograms and required a converted Atlas ICBM for launch.

CapabilityPlanValue 3.4Oct 2, 2023Crisis in space: The 1973 Yom Kippur War and “crisis reconnaissance”

United Launch Alliance is using a three-part approach to build up launch capacity for Kuiper that includes infrastructure improvements, launching Kuiper satellites on Atlas rockets, and stockpiling Vulcan hardware.

PlanCapabilityGrowthGeneralValue 4.0Sep 12, 2023Kuiper launch companies say they can meet Amazon’s schedule

Intelsat launched 10 satellites throughout 1997 using a diversity of rockets including Arianespace’s Ariane 4, Lockheed Martin’s Atlas 2, and Russia’s Proton.

PlanValue 3.5Aug 3, 2023SpaceX launches Intelsat’s last C-band clearing satellite

The mission’s objective is to establish laser communication downlinks and demonstrate pointing, acquisition, and tracking capabilities at gigabit-per-second data rates between Astrolight’s ATLAS-1 and Cailabs’ optical ground station.

CapabilityPlanValue 4.0Jul 6, 2023Astrolight’s ATLAS-1 and Cailabs to demonstrate Space-to-Earth optical communications

Astrolight and Cailabs entered into an agreement to launch a satellite mission hosting Astrolight’s ATLAS-1 space-to-Earth laser communication terminal.

RelationshipsCapabilityPlanValue 4.2Jul 6, 2023Astrolight’s ATLAS-1 and Cailabs to demonstrate Space-to-Earth optical communications

ATLAS Space Operations partnered with Viasat Real-Time Earth in early 2023 to include Viasat’s ground antenna network in the ATLAS Global Federated Network.

RelationshipsValue 4.0Jul 6, 2023ATLAS Space Operations launches Freedom Space to support government missions + also names a new CEO

NaturalVue 2.0 is an image mosaic that combines more than 60,000 Landsat 8 images to create a seamless, virtually cloud-free, 15-meter basemap and is available in ArcGIS Living Atlas.

CapabilityGeneralValue 4.0Jun 27, 2023Maxar and Esri Expand Partnership to Visualize Precision3D™ in ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World

United Launch Alliance must coordinate the Cert-1 launch schedule around other Atlas launches at the pad.

PlanGeneralValue 3.0Jun 7, 2023Vulcan performs static-fire test

Planet Labs PBC partnered with the United Arab Emirates Space Agency to build a regional, satellite data-driven loss and damage atlas for climate change resilience.

RelationshipsGeneralValue 4.0May 31, 2023Planet partners with the UAE Space Agency to build satellite data-driven loss + damage atlas for climate resilience

Planet Labs PBC is partnering with the United Arab Emirates Space Agency to build a regional satellite data-driven loss and damage atlas for climate change resilience.

RelationshipsCapabilityGeneralValue 4.0May 26, 2023Planet Labs Partners with UAE Space Agency

United Launch Alliance’s inaugural Vulcan Centaur rocket was scheduled for as soon as 2023-05-04 and Vulcan and Atlas use the same launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

PlanCapabilityValue 4.0Mar 24, 2023First crewed Starliner launch slips again