Atlas rocket

The Atlas-Centaur rocket. The original Centaur rocket measured 9 m/30 ft long and had a diameter of 3 m/10 ft. When fully fuelled it weighed more than 15,900 kg/35,000 lb. Use of the high-energy propellant combination on the Centaur meant heavier payloads could be carried into orbit. Payloads weighing as much as 2,300 kg/5,000 lb can be carried to high Earth orbit in combination with the Atlas rocket first stage.

US rocket, originally designed and built in 1946 as an intercontinental missile for the US Air Force but subsequently adapted for space use. Each Atlas originally cost US$3 million to build.

NASA engineers called the rocket a ‘gasbag’ because its thin stainless steel sections had to be pressurized by helium gas to prevent their collapse. Atlas rockets, using a liquid oxygen fuel, launched US astronauts into orbit during the Mercury project (1961–63).

Upper stages added at a later date created the Atlas-Agena and Atlas-Centaur rockets. The Atlas-Agena rocket was used by the US Air Force to launch spy satellites. It launched the Mariner spacecraft, and in 1965 and 1966 an Atlas booster placed an Agena rocket in orbit as a docking target for Gemini spacecraft.

The addition of a Centaur rocket to the Atlas rocket created a more powerful launch vehicle, which could lift 4,670 kg/10,297 lb. The combination sent the Surveyor spacecraft to the Moon and was also often used by the US Air Force, forming the basis of a commercial Atlas fleet.

The latest rockets to carry the Atlas name, the Atlas V series, have little technology in common with earlier Atlas rockets, which have now all been retired.