Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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On Tuesday, July 2, United Launch Alliance launched the final Atlas 5 rocket flying in a 551 configuration. The rocket featured a five-meter payload fairing, five solid rocket boosters, and one RL10 upper stage engine.

The mission, Atlas 5 Amazon Leo 8 (aka Leo Atlas 8), send 29 satellites into low Earth orbit with deployment happening less than 30 minutes after liftoff. Amazon purchased nine flights onboard Atlas 5 rockets. The first of those launched the Protoflight mission in 2023, followed by eight batches of production satellites.

The first Atlas 5 551 rocket launched on January 19, 2006, in support of NASA's New Horizons mission.

Video shot by (alphabetical order):
• Adam Bernstein, Spaceflight Now
• Chuck and Jen Briggs, youtube.com/@UCVGiup1cSGFhbV1q7JCLPLw
• Pete Carstens, MaxQ Productions youtube.com/@UC8aOfkRZRqa7YNzC_AO3XpA
• John Pisani, Spaceflight Now
• Cameron Schwartz, Spaceflight Now

Edited by: Will Robinson-Smith, Spaceflight Now
Produced by: John Pisani, Spaceflight Now

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