Atlas 5

The departure at dawn of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Thursday sent aloft the U.S. military’s last Space Based Infrared System missile warning satellite, a $1.2 billion mission billed by the Space Force as a stepping stone to a new generation of more sensitive sentinels in the sky.

United Launch Alliance’s fifth mission of the year lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 6:29 a.m. EDT (1029 GMT) Thursday. An Atlas 5 rocket launched on a $1.2 billion mission with a U.S. Space Force missile warning satellite.

The last in a line of six satellites for the U.S. military’s Space Based Infrared System, or SBIRS, missile warning program is ready for launch Thursday from Cape Canaveral on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

United Launch Alliance’s next Atlas 5 rocket rolled out to its launch pad Tuesday at Cape Canaveral for a fiery blastoff at dawn Thursday with a U.S. military missile warning satellite.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket fired off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Friday on a six-hour climb to geosynchronous orbit, deploying a classified payload and a U.S. Space Force satellite to test an improved infrared heat-sensitive sensor design that could help detect and track enemy hypersonic missiles.

Officials scrubbed the launch of an Atlas 5 rocket for the U.S. Space Force Thursday due to the risk of lightning from nearby thunderstorms, delaying the liftoff of the $1.1 billon mission until Friday evening.

Dodging stormy weather in Central Florida, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 7:15 p.m. EDT (2315 GMT) Friday, carrying two experimental satellites for the U.S. Space Force on a six-hour climb toward geosynchronous orbit.

United Launch Alliance teams at Cape Canaveral rolled an Atlas 5 rocket to its launch pad Wednesday, moving the launcher into position for liftoff Thursday evening with a pair of geostationary satellites for the U.S. Space Force.

United Launch Alliance teams at Cape Canaveral are in the final week of preparations for the next flight of an Atlas 5 rocket, set for liftoff with two U.S. military technology demonstration satellites June 30, a one-day delay after bad weather held up launch processing.