Posted: Tue, Feb 8, 2005, 7:19 AM ET (1219 GMT)
International Launch Services (ILS) said Monday that it had won a contract to launch a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite on an Atlas 5 booster. The contract is for a mission designated NROL-24; no details about the satellite itself were released. The payload will be launched on an Atlas 5 401 booster from Cape Canaveral in mid-2007. the Atlas 5 has flown four times, all for commercial customers; the first government Atlas 5 mission is planned for April 2006. The Atlas 5 was the only option for NRO because of an existing contracting ban against Boeing's Delta 4 EELV because of ethical improprieties during the original EELV competition in the 1990s, although Boeing officials have recently suggested that the Air Force will lift the ban in the near future.

Related Links:

•  ILS press release