ORLANDO, Fla. — United Launch Alliance managed what was only its second launch of the year, sending up an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday morning.
The rocket featuring its most powerful configuration with five solid rocket boosters lifted off at 8:47 a.m. from Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 on a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office and Space Force called SILENTBARKER/NROL-107.
ULA’s lone rocket launch in 2023 had been a Delta IV Heavy back in June. Meanwhile, SpaceX with its latest Starlink launch from neighboring SLC 40 on Friday night has managed 63 orbital missions across all its launch complexes including California.
For the Space Coast, the Atlas V launch marked the 48th of the year with all but three coming from SpaceX. Aside from the two now from ULA, Relativity Space managed a launch of its 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket in March. With more than three months to go in the year, the Space Coast is on track to surpass its record 57 launches seen in 2022.
SILENTBARKER’s classified mission, which includes multiple payloads, has a primary goal of placing watchdog satellites in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) “so that we can understand the intentions of other countries to see what they’re doing in the GEO belts and see if there’s any indications of threats or if it’s just normal operations,” said Chris Scolese, director of the NRO on a media call last week….