Atlas V Totally Explained

Everything about The Atlas V totally explained

The Atlas V rocket is an expendable launch vehicle formerly built by Lockheed Martin and now built by the Lockheed Martin-Boeing joint venture United Launch Alliance. Aerojet develops and manufactures the Atlas V boosters. The rocket, built in Decatur, Alabama, consists of a first stage powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen, which uses a Russian made RD-180 engine, and a liquid hydrogen–liquid oxygen powered Centaur upper stage. Some configurations also use strap-on booster rockets. Together these components are referred to as the Atlas V launch vehicle.
In its 12 launches, from its maiden launch in August 2002 to March 2008, the Atlas V has had a perfect success rate. On one flight, NRO L-30 on June 15, 2007, an upper-stage anomaly occurred when the engine in the vehicle's Centaur upper stage shut down early, leaving the payload -- a pair of ocean surveillance satellites -- in a lower than intended orbit. However, the customer, the National Reconnaissance Office, categorized the mission as a success. The anomaly was thoroughly investigated. Atlas V has made four successful flights since the anomaly. Comparable rockets: Delta IV — Proton — Ariane 5 — Chang Zheng 5 — Angara — Falcon 9

History

The Atlas V is the newest member of the Atlas family, and is a direct descendant of the previous Atlas II and especially the Atlas III vehicles. Most propulsion, avionic and structural elements are either identical to or straightforward derivations of those used on the previous vehicles.
   The most obvious external change is to the first stage tanks, which no longer use 10 foot diameter, stainless steel monocoque, common intermediate bulkhead "balloon" construction nor the '1.5 staging' technique which jettisoned two engines in mid-flight but left a third burning all the way from the ground to orbit, but instead use a 12.5 foot diameter welded aluminum alloy construction first stage much like that of the Titan family of vehicles or the Space Shuttle external tank.
   The Atlas V was developed by Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services as part of the US Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. The term expendable launch vehicle means it's only used once. Launches are from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. In addition, Space Launch Complex 3 East at Vandenberg Air Force Base is being prepared for future polar launches.
   The first Atlas V was launched on August 21, 2002. Twelve Atlas V launches to date have been successful except for the 2007 anomaly. The Atlas V family uses a single-stage Atlas main engine, the Russian RD-180 and the newly developed Common Core Booster (CCB) with up to five Aerojet made strap-on solid rocket boosters. The CCB is 12.5 ft (3.8 m) in diameter by 106.6 ft (32.5 m) long and uses 627,105 lb (284,450 kg) of liquid oxygen and RP-1 rocket fuel propellants. The booster operates for about four minutes, providing about 4 meganewtons (860,000 lbf) of thrust at start, the major part of this thrust, 4.152 meganewtons being provided by Russian RD-180 engine.
   The Centaur upper stage uses a pressure stabilized propellant tank design and cryogenic propellants. The Centaur stage for Atlas V is stretched 5.5 ft (1.68 m) and is powered by either one or two Pratt & Whitney RL10A-4-2 engines, each engine developing a thrust of 99.2 kN (22,300 lbf). Operational and reliability upgrades are enabled with the RL10A-4-2 engine configuration. The inertial navigation unit (INU) located on the Centaur provides guidance and navigation for both Atlas and Centaur, and controls both Atlas and Centaur tank pressures and propellant use. The Centaur engines are capable of multiple in-space starts, making possible insertion into low-earth parking orbit, followed by a coast period and then insertion into GTO. A subsequent third burn following a multi-hour coast can permit direct injection of payloads into geostationary orbit. The Centaur vehicle has the highest proportion of burnable propellant relative to total mass of any modern upper stage and hence can deliver substantial payloads to a high energy state.
   Many systems on the Atlas V have been the subject of upgrade and enhancement both prior to the first Atlas V flight and since that time. An upgrade to a Fault Tolerant INU (FTINU) was recently made to enhance mission reliability for Atlas vehicles.
   On April 14, 2008, Atlas V lifted it's heaviest payload to date into orbit - a 14,625 lb (6,648 kg) telecommunications satellite built by Space Systems/Loral of Palo Alto, CA.

2007 valve anomaly

The only anomalous event in the use of the Atlas V launch system occurred June 15, 2007, when the engine in the Centaur upper stage of an Atlas V shut down early, leaving its payload -- a pair of NRO L-30 ocean surveillance satellites -- in a lower than intended orbit. The cause of the anomaly was traced to a leaky valve. Replacing the valve led to a delay in an upcoming Atlas V launch.

Future developments

The Atlas V-Heavy or HLV configuration is available 30 months from order. It would use three CCB stages strapped together to provide the capability necessary to lift the heaviest spacecraft. Approximately 95% of the hardware required for the Atlas HLV has already been flown on the Atlas V single core vehicles.
The Atlas V has two general payload fairing sizes. The classic 4-meter fairing, used since the Atlas II, comes in regular and slightly stretched versions (see AV-004/Inmarsat 4-F1 launch), and Lockheed Martin introduced a 5-meter (4.57 meters usable) payload fairing developed and built by Contraves Space (now Oerlikon Space(External Link

)) in Switzerland. The Contraves fairing is a composite design and is based on flight proven hardware. Three configurations will be manufactured to support Atlas V. The short and medium length configurations will be used on the Atlas V 500 series. The long configuration will be used on the Atlas V-Heavy. The classic fairing covers only the payload, leaving the Centaur stage exposed to open air. With the Contraves fairing, the Centaur is enclosed within the fairing as well as the payload.

Versions

Each Atlas booster has a three digit version designation that's determined by the features of the rocket. The first digit is the diameter (in meters) of the nosecone fairing, and is always either four or five. The second digit is the number of solid rocket boosters attached to the base of the rocket, and can number anywhere from zero through three with the 4-m fairing and zero through five with the 5-m fairing. The third digit is the number of engines on the Centaur stage, either one or two. Single-engine Centaurs (SEC) are typically used for satellites going to geostationary transfer orbit or reaching escape velocity. Dual engine Centaurs (DEC) are typically used for satellites reaching low Earth orbit.
For example, if the Atlas V version is 552, this means that the fairing is five meters, has five solid rocket boosters, and has two Centaur engines.
If the Atlas V version is 431, this means that the fairing is four meters, has three solid rocket boosters, and has a single Centaur engine. Comparable rockets: Delta IV - Ariane 5 - Chang Zheng 5 - Angara - Proton - Falcon 9 An agreement between Lockheed and Bigelow Aerospace in September 2006 could lead to a human-rated version of the Atlas V to tap into the potential space tourism market. Versions: List Date: June 16 2007

Version	Fairing	Boosters	Upper stage	Payload to LEO	Payload to GTO	Launches to date
401	4 m	-	SEC	-	4951 kg	6
402	4 m	-	DEC	12500 kg	-	0
411	4 m	1	SEC	-	5951 kg	1
421	4 m	2	SEC	-	6832 kg	2
431	4 m	3	SEC	-	7642 kg	1
501	5 m	-	SEC	-	3971 kg	0
502	5 m	-	DEC	10300 kg	-	0
511	5 m	1	SEC	-	5271 kg	0
512	5 m	1	DEC	12050 kg	-	0
521	5 m	2	SEC	-	6287 kg	2
522	5 m	2	DEC	13950 kg	-	0
531	5 m	3	SEC	-	7202 kg	0
532	5 m	3	DEC	17250 kg	-	0
541	5 m	4	SEC	-	7982 kg	0
542	5 m	4	DEC	18750 kg	-	0
551	5 m	5	SEC	-	8672 kg	1
552	5 m	5	DEC	20050 kg	-	0
Heavy (HLV (5H1))	5 m	2 CCB	SEC	-	13605 kg	0
Heavy (HLV DEC (5H2))	5 m	2 CCB	DEC	25000 kg	-	0

Atlas V Launches

List Date: June 2007

Date	Type	Serial-no.	Startplace	Payload	Kind of payload	Orbit	Outcome	Remarks
August 21 2002	401	AV-001	CC LC41	Hot Bird 6	Commercial communications satellite	GSO	Success	First Atlas V launch
May 13 2003	401	AV-002	CC LC41	HellasSat 2	Commercial communications satellite	GSO	Success
July 17 2003	521	AV-003	CC LC41	Rainbow 1	Commercial communications satellite	GSO	Success	First Atlas V 500 launch
December 17 2004	521	AV-005	CC LC41	AMC 16	Commercial communications satellite	GSO	Success
March 11 2005	431	AV-004	CC LC41	Inmarsat 4-F1	Commercial communications satellite	GSO	Success
August 12 2005	401	AV-007	CC LC41	Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter	Mars orbiter	Escape	Success	First Atlas V launch for NASA
January 19 2006	551	AV-010	CC LC41	New Horizons	Pluto and Kuiper Belt probe	Escape	Success	Boeing Star 48B third stage used, first Atlas V launch with a third stage
April 20 2006	411	AV-008	CC LC41	ASTRA 1KR	Commercial communications satellite	GSO	Success	Final Atlas commercial launch for ILS
March 8 2007	401	AV-013	CC LC41	Space Test Program-1	6 military research satellites	LEO	Success	FalconSAT-3
June 15 2007	401	AV-009	CC LC41	NRO L-30R (NOSS-4-3A & B)	Two NRO Reconnaissance satellites	LEO	Upper-Stage Anomaly	First Atlas V flight for the National Reconnaissance Office
	421	AV-011	CC LC41	WGS SV-1	Military communications satellite	GTO	Success	valve replacement	401	AV-020	CC LC41	Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)	Lunar orbit and Lunar impactor	Press release
NET
August 2011	551		CC LC41	Juno	Jupiter mission

Photo Gallery

Image:New Horizons launch.jpg|An Atlas V 551 with the New Horizons Deep Space Probe launches from Lauch Pad 41 in Cape Canaveral Image:Atlas V rocket raised.jpg|Core stage of an Atlas V being raised to a vertical position Image:MRO Liftoff.jpeg|The MRO spacecraft lauches on August the 12. 2005 at 11:43 UTC to the Planet Mars onboard an Atlas V 401 Launch Vehicle