Snapshots from Atlas 5 launch

Three rockets under the existing Block Buy between the Pentagon and United Launch Alliance have been assigned configurations and payloads.

The space plane was brought to the Kennedy Space Center in May 2024 with plans to launch later that year. Now, its first flight is no earlier than late 2026.

This is the ascent timeline to be followed by the Atlas 5 rocket’s ascent into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the commercial WorldView 4 Earth-imaging satellite for DigitalGlobe. Launch is scheduled for Friday at 11:30 a.m. local time (2:30 p.m. EDT; 1830 GMT).