U.S. Air Force Col. Gary Henry, Commander, Launch and Range Systems Wing

After technical troubles and late arriving payloads kept the U.S. Air Force’s Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets grounded for most of 2008, the vehicles are expected to tally more launches between them this year than in any of the past seven. Developed under the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program as the primary means of getting U.S. national security payloads into orbit, the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 have logged a combined 26 missions to date without failure.