Atlas II

Launch vehicle.

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History

The Atlas IIA launch vehicle program is managed by the Launch Programs System Program Office at Air Force Materiel Command's Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB, CA.

In May 1988, the Air Force chose General Dynamics (now Lockheed-Martin) to develop the Atlas II vehicle. The Atlas was originally fielded as an ICBM in the early 1960s. The Air Force replaced the Atlas ICBMs with Minuteman missiles and converted them into space launch vehicles in the late 1960s. NASA used the Atlas as a space launch vehicle as early as 1958. Atlas served as the launch vehicle for Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite that broadcast President Eisenhower's pre-recorded Christmas message around the world.

An Atlas booster carried U.S. astronaut John Glenn into orbit under Project Mercury, the first U.S. manned space program. Atlas space launch vehicles were used in all three unmanned lunar exploration programs. Atlas Centaur vehicles also launched Mariner and Pioneer planetary probes.

Description

Atlas II is a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles which evolved from the successful Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program. It is designed to launch payloads into low earth orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit or geosynchronous orbit.

Atlas IIA is a two-and-a-half stage vehicle, primarily used to support the Defense Satellite Communications System III program. The Atlas IIA is capable of lifting approximately 14,500 pounds (6,577 kilograms) into low earth orbit and 6,100 pounds (2,767 kilograms) to a geosynchronous orbit (22,000 miles-plus).

The Atlas II provides higher performance than the earlier Atlas I by using engines with greater thrust and longer fuel tanks for both stages. All three engines provide 494,500 pounds of total thrust capability. This series uses an improved Centaur upper stage - the world's first high-energy propellant stage - to increase its payload capability. Centaur propulsion is provided by a Pratt and Whitney liquid rocket engine set consisting of two engines that provide 41,000 pounds of thrust.

Atlas II also has lower-cost electronics, an improved flight computer and longer propellant tanks than its predecessor, Atlas I.

Atlas IIs are launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, by the 45th Space Wing and, in the future, will be launched by the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA.