United Launch Alliance Successfully Launches Joint National Security Mission

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the SILENTBARKER/NROL-107 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the United States Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) lifted off on Sept.10 at 8:47 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. To date, ULA has launched 157 times with 100 percent mission success. 

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to continue to build on a legacy of outstanding teamwork and collaboration with our national security partners,” said Gary Wentz, ULA vice president of Government and Commercial Programs. “We specialize in complex high-energy orbits and the team is proud to have launched this mission direct to geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) to meet our nation’s space protection needs.”

SILENTBARKER/NROL-107 was ULA’s 98th launch for national security and was the final NRO launch aboard an Atlas V rocket as ULA transitions future missions to the next generation Vulcan rocket that will offer unprecedented flexibility in a single system with streamlined operations and greater affordability.

ULA’s next launch is the Amazon Project Kuiper Protoflight mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.