Atlas I


The Atlas I was a US expendable launch system manufactured by General Dynamics in the 1990s to launch a variety of satellites. 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. 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