How to watch ULA Atlas V USSF-51 Launch Mission

United Launch Alliance (ULA) will launch the USSF-51 mission on July 30, 2024, and you can watch it online. The liftoff window will open at 6:45 a.m. ET from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

The company completed a launch readiness review earlier today and approved further preparations. The review was completed at the Advanced Spaceflight Operations Center (ASOC). The weather is expected to be more than 80 percent favorable on the launch day.

This is the 100th ULA mission for national security and the 58th and final for the Atlas V rocket. Next time, the company will use a Vulcan rocket.

ULA Atlas V USSF-51 Mission (source – ULA)

ULA began stacking the rocket on June 25 when the first stage was trucked from the horizontal integration facility to the vertical integration facility at Launch Complex-41.

The vehicle uses refined kerosene propellant and the first stage generates 860,200 pounds of thrust during liftoff. The first stage has five GEM 63 solid rocket boosters (SRBs) on the side.

These side boosters will be used during liftoff and each of them generates 371,550 pounds of thrust for about 90 seconds. The Centaur upper stage uses a single RL10C-1-1 engine, which burns liquid hydrogen and oxygen for 23,825 pounds of thrust. Once fueled, the Atlas V rocket will weigh 1.29 million pounds prior to liftoff.

ULA received the USSF-51 payload on July 17 and lifted atop the rocket to complete the assembly of the launch vehicle. It is encapsulated in a 17-ft diameter short payload fairing.

The 5-m fairing is a sandwich composite structure with a vented aluminum-honeycomb core and graphite-epoxy face sheets. Its two-piece shell houses both the centaur and the satellite.

You can watch ULA launching the Atlas V rocket for the final time for Space Force Space Systems Command carrying USSF-51 on July 30 via the live stream below.

(source – ULA)