Atlas I

Atlas I
	Launch of the maiden flight of the Atlas I, with the CRRES satellite
Has use	Expendable launch system
Manufacturer	General Dynamics
Country of origin	United States
Size
Height	43.90m (144.00 ft)
Diameter	3.05m (10 ft)
Mass	164,300kg (362,200 lb)
Stages	2.5
Associated rockets
Family	Atlas
Launch history
Status	Retired
Launch sites	LC-36B, Cape Canaveral
Total launches	11
Success(es)	8
Failure(s)	3
First flight	July 25, 1990
Last flight	April 25, 1997

The Atlas I was a US expendable launch system manufactured by General Dynamics in the 1990s to launch a variety of satellites.^{[clarification needed]} The "I" in "Atlas I" can cause confusion, as all previous Atlas rockets were designated using letters, ending with the Atlas H, however subsequent rockets were designated using Roman numerals, starting with the Atlas II. Officially, the "I" is the Roman numeral "1". Eleven launches took place, with three failures.

Though the Atlas I was marketed as a new rocket, it was mostly a re-brand of the Atlas G/H for commercial payloads.^[1] The Atlas G and H launched mostly governmental satellites.

Atlas I was the last use of the classic Atlas design with three engines, jettisonable booster section, and two vernier engines. Atlas II, while retaining most of those features, replaced the verniers with a hydrazine roll control system.

Launch history[]

Flight No.	Date/Time (GMT)	Serial Number		Payload	Outcome	Remarks
Flight No.	Date/Time (GMT)	Atlas	Centaur	Payload	Outcome	Remarks
1	July 25, 1990, 19:21	AC-69	5049	CRRES	Success	Maiden flight of Atlas I, spacecraft later failed
2	April 18, 1991, 23:30	AC-70	5050	Yuri 3H	Failure	RSO destruct at T+441 seconds. Due to management^[2] schedule and cost pressure during the postflight analysis, engineers made a quick but wrong conclusion that one Centaur engine failed to start due to debris lodged in the LH2 turbopump. The real problem was LH2 mixing with atmospheric nitrogen to form a plug of solid nitrogen in a Centaur engine valve. This resulted in the engine not developing thrust and the twin engine Centaur tumbled out of control. The problem would resurface again in Atlas AC-71.
3	March 14, 1992, 00:00	AC-72	5052	Galaxy 5	Success
4	August 22, 1992, 22:40	AC-71	5051	Galaxy 1R	Failure	Centaur engine failure followed by RSO destruct. Just like the 1991 launch, this incident was caused by LH2 mixing with atmospheric nitrogen to form a plug of solid nitrogen in a Centaur engine valve. The condition was caused by an experimental procedure to increase performance by cooling the Centaur engines prior to ignition. The procedure was not fully tested under flight like conditions. This time management gave full authority to examine every possible cause until the root was found.
5	March 25, 1993, 21:38	AC-74	5054		Failure	An improperly torqued set screw caused the Atlas sustainer engine to drop to 75% thrust starting at T+25 seconds. By booster staging at T+120 seconds, sustainer thrust was down to 60%. The payload was placed in an unusable orbit. This was the last failed launch involving an Atlas vehicle.
6	September 3, 1993, 11:17	AC-75	5055	(USA-95)	Success
7	April 13, 1994, 06:04	AC-73	5053	GOES-I (GOES-8)	Success
8	June 24, 1994, 13:50	AC-76	5056	(USA-104)	Success
9	May 23, 1995, 05:52	AC-77	5057	GOES-J (GOES-9)	Success
10	April 30, 1996, 04:31	AC-78	5058	BeppoSAX	Success
11	April 25, 1997, 05:49	AC-79	5059	GOES-K (GOES-10)	Success	Final flight of Atlas I^[3]

References[]

^ "Atlas I". www.astronautix.com. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
^ "The Space Review: Launch failures: An Atlas Groundhog Day".
^ "Atlas I Successfully Launches GOES-K". International Launch Services. April 25, 1997. Retrieved March 16, 2013.

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[1] "Atlas I". www.astronautix.com. Retrieved August 18, 2020.

[2] "The Space Review: Launch failures: An Atlas Groundhog Day".

[3] "Atlas I Successfully Launches GOES-K". International Launch Services. April 25, 1997. Retrieved March 16, 2013.

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v t Orbital launch systems
List of orbital launch systems Comparison of orbital launch systems
Current	Angara A5 Antares 230+ Ariane 5 Atlas V Ceres-1 Delta IV Heavy Electron Epsilon Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy Firefly Alpha^† GSLV Mk II Mk III H-IIA Hyperbola-1 Jielong 1 Kuaizhou 1 1A 11^† Kaituozhe 2 LauncherOne Long March 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B/E 3C 4B 4C 5 5B 6 7 7A 8 11 Minotaur I IV V C Nuri^† OS-M1^† Pegasus XL Proton-M PSLV Qased Rocket 3 Shavit 2 Simorgh^† Soyuz-2 2.1a / STA 2.1b / STB 2-1v Unha Vega Zenit 3SL 3SLB 3F Zhuque-1^†
In development	Amur Angara 1.2 Ariane 6 Bloostar Cyclone-4M Eris Firefly Beta H3 Hyperbola-2 Irtysh Kuaizhou 21 31 Long March 921 rocket 9 Miura 5 Neutron New Glenn New Line 1 OS-M 2 4 Orbex Prime Red Dwarf SLS Block 1 Block 1B Block 2 Soyuz-7 SSLV Starship Terran 1 R Vega C E Vulcan Zero Zhuque-2 Zuljanah
Retired	Antares 110 120 130^† 230 Ariane 1 2 3 4 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga^† Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV Diamant Dnepr Energia Europa^† Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" Feng Bao 1 GSLV Mk I H-I H-II H-IIB Juno I Juno II Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos 1 2I 3 3M Lambda 4S Long March 1 1D^† 2A 2E 3 3B 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1^† N-I N-II Naro-1 Paektusan^† Pilot-2^† R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original FG L M U U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna^† Safir 1 1A 1B Saturn I IB V Scout Shavit original Shavit 1 SLV Space Shuttle SPARK^† Sparta SS-520 Start-1 Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon original 2 3 Universal Rocket UR-500 Proton Proton-K Rokot Strela Vanguard VLS-1^† Zenit 2 2M
Classes	Sounding rocket Small-lift launch vehicle Medium-lift launch vehicle Heavy-lift launch vehicle Super heavy-lift launch vehicle
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v t Orbital launch systems developed in the United States
Active	Antares 230+ Atlas V Delta IV Heavy Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy Firefly Alpha LauncherOne Minotaur I IV V C Pegasus XL Astra Rocket 3
In development	Firefly Beta New Glenn Red Dwarf RS1 SLS Block 1 Block 1B Block 2 Starship Terran 1 R Vulcan
Retired	Antares 110/120/130/230** Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able Agena Centaur Conestoga Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" H-I* Juno I Juno II N-I* N-II* Pilot Saturn I IB V Scout Space Shuttle SPARK Sparta Thor Able Ablestar Agena Burner Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Vanguard
* - Japanese projects using US rockets or stages ** - uses Russian engines

Atlas I

Launch history[]

See also[]

References[]