United Launch Alliance is closing a giant chapter within the firm’s historical past. Thursday morning’s launch from Cape Canaveral House Drive Station in assist of Amazon Leo’s satellite tv for pc constellation would be the closing flight of an Atlas 5 rocket flying in a 551 configuration.
The rocket carries 29 broadband web satellites onboard as a part of the Atlas 5 Amazon Leo 8 mission, which can be known as Leo Atlas 8 (LA-08) by Amazon.
Liftoff from House Launch Advanced 41 is scheduled for 12:24 a.m. EDT (0424 UTC). The rocket will fly on a north-easterly trajectory upon leaving the pad.
Spaceflight Now could have dwell protection starting about an hour previous to liftoff.
The forty fifth Climate Squadron forecast an 85 % likelihood for favorable climate in the course of the 29-minute launch window. Meteorologists are monitoring a small likelihood for interference from cumulus clouds.
After finishing a launch readiness assessment on Tuesday, countdown to launch started at 7:49 a.m. EDT (1149 UTC) on Wednesday. Groups ready to roll the 205-foot-tall (62.5 m) rocket from the Vertical Integration Facility – Authorities (VIF-G) to the launch pad.
Driving atop the Cell Launch Platform (MLP), the Atlas 5 cruised down a set of practice tracks a couple of third of a mile away to the launch pad. As soon as the “go to roll” name was granted at about 10 a.m. EDT (1400 UTC), the 1.9-million-pound (862,000 kg) MLP and Atlas 5 rocket started shifting.
The MLP was lowered onto the launch pad piers at 11:11 a.m. EDT (1511 UTC), which established the standing of “onerous down.” After attaching the required umbilicals to the rocket and payload fairing, and eradicating the assist vehicles, ULA started loading the rocket’s booster with RP-1, a rocket grade kerosene, at about 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 UTC), which was full an hour later.
United Launch Alliance rolled its closing Atlas 5 551 rocket to the pad at House Launch Advanced 41 and is getting ready to launch the Leo Atlas 8 mission at 12:24 a.m. EDT (0424 UTC) on July 2. Gasoline loading (RP-1) on the Atlas booster started at 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 UTC).
Timelapse:… pic.twitter.com/aHppLTtFn4
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) July 1, 2026
The rocket bears the corporate designation AV-114 from ULA and would be the one hundred and tenth Atlas 5 rocket launched to this point.
The 551 configuration denotes the fairing measurement (5 meters), the variety of strong rocket boosters, and the variety of Centaur higher stage engines. There have been 22 Atlas 5 551 launches to this point with the primary supporting NASA’s New Horizon’s mission to Pluto, which launched on Jan. 19, 2006.
Following Thursday’s launch there will likely be simply six Atlas 5 rockets remaining. All of these are reserved to fly Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.
These rockets fly within the N22 configuration and are the one variant of an Atlas 5 rocket that function a dual-engine Centaur higher stage. After the 2024 Crew Flight Take a look at of Starliner in 2024 skilled a number of points leading to NASA declaring a Kind A mishap, the cargo-only Starliner-1 launch date is in query.
Shifting to the following chapter
Amazon Leo’s constellation of satellites is launched to house utilizing a wide range of launch suppliers along with ULA. It has flown three missions with every Arianespace and SpaceX, utilizing their Ariane 6 and Falcon 9 rockets respectively.
The corporate additionally bought 38 launches utilizing ULA’s Vulcan rockets and 27 launches with Blue Origin’s New Glenn rockets. Nevertheless, each of these launch autos stay grounded as they undergo their very own anomaly investigations.
Previous to the launch of the latest Amazon Leo mission on an Ariane 6 rocket earlier this month, Steven Metayer, the vp of Manufacturing Operations at Amazon Leo, stated that there could be another Ariane 6 launch supporting this constellation this 12 months, however didn’t specify when within the subsequent six months.
He stated the primary Vulcan flight of Amazon Leo satellites is predicted to happen someday within the third quarter of 2026. ULA stacked its Vulcan rocket inside its new VIF-A hangar and plans to conduct a moist costume rehearsal tanking take a look at following the LA-08 launch.
After the launch, there will likely be 396 Amazon Leo satellites in low Earth orbit. The corporate goals to roll out early industrial service by the top of the 12 months, however hasn’t acknowledged what number of satellites will likely be wanted to start this preliminary providing.
The tech big has lined up various company purchasers, together with most just lately a take care of Hitachi Building Equipment, which was introduced on June 24.
“Underneath this settlement, Hitachi Building Equipment will deploy moveable Amazon Leo antennas at development websites in the UK and Germany starting in 2026, utilizing satellite tv for pc connectivity for essential service workflows together with machine well being reviews, downloading service manuals within the discipline, receiving real-time upkeep alerts and importing inspection reviews,” Hitachi stated in a press launch.
