ULA completes its 4th launch this year and last Atlas-5 launch for the Space Force
Though ULA’s Atlas-5 rocket still has a number of launches on its manifest before it is retired, early this morning the company successfully completed the last Atlas-5 launch for the Space Force, the rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
This was ULA’s fourth launch in 2024, the most in a year for the company since 2022. The leader board for this year’s launch race remains unchanged:
74 SpaceX
31 China
8 Rocket Lab
8 Russia
American private enterprise however now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 87 to 47, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world combined, including American companies, 74 to 60.
Note: A Rocket Lab that had been scheduled for today has been delayed two days.
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Though ULA’s Atlas-5 rocket still has a number of launches on its manifest before it is retired, early this morning the company successfully completed the last Atlas-5 launch for the Space Force, the rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
This was ULA’s fourth launch in 2024, the most in a year for the company since 2022. The leader board for this year’s launch race remains unchanged:
74 SpaceX
31 China
8 Rocket Lab
8 Russia
American private enterprise however now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 87 to 47, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world combined, including American companies, 74 to 60.
Note: A Rocket Lab that had been scheduled for today has been delayed two days.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Imagine if SpaceX wasn’t around, and the USA (ULA and others) had but 13 launches to show for the year.
Every time I see a non-Falcon launch now I feel like something is missing… oh yeah, the landing! Funny how strange it is to see everyone else just throw their multimillions in hardware away, when it used to be so perfectly normal!
”Imagine if SpaceX wasn’t around, and the USA (ULA and others) had but 13 launches to show for the year.”
Aaahhh, no. If SpaceX weren’t around the NASA and Space Force payloads they launch would instead be launched by ULA.
”Funny how strange it is to see everyone else just throw their multimillions in hardware away…”
Not strange at all. It’s perfectly normal. No one else launches enough for reusability to pay for itself.
mkent
July 30, 2024 at 1:50 pm
”Imagine if SpaceX wasn’t around, and the USA (ULA and others) had but 13 launches to show for the year.”
Aaahhh, no. If SpaceX weren’t around the NASA and Space Force payloads they launch would instead be launched by ULA.
”Funny how strange it is to see everyone else just throw their multimillions in hardware away…”
“”””Not strange at all. It’s perfectly normal. No one else launches enough for reusability to pay for itself.””””
Chicken-egg. They don’t launch enough because they are throwing away expensive gear and passing the cost on to the customer.
Exactly.
Rocket reuse is still brand new from a historical point.
We who desire rapid space progress think it old hat.
It will take time.
Ariane 6s are not obsolete…just another launcher of the usual kind. Patience….
I won’t watch another ULA launch until they reverse their decision to prohibit photographers from selling photo’s featuring their launches. Fortunately, I won’t be missing much. ;-)