Atlas V launch tower logos

[Delta_8930]

What happened to the logos on the Atlas V launch tower?

When Atlas V was still managed by Lockheed Martin, the Lockheed Martin logo was painted onto the side of the Atlas launch tower. When ULA took over AV operations, they painted "Atlas" onto the launch tower, along with a bunch of other logos, like this:

Sometime in 2013, the logos disappeared from the launch tower. According to my records, the last Atlas V launch which used the tower with the logos was GPS IIF-4. Pictures from the MUOS-2 launch, which followed the GPS IIF-4 launch, showed the tower missing its logos. There are faint smudges in the places where the logos used to be. Currently, the launch tower looks like this:

Does anyone know what happened to the logos and if it was deliberate, why did ULA decide to do that?

[PB666]

look carefully, i think you will find that it is a slightly different launch tower.

Edited December 5, 2015 by PB666

[fredinno]

Why are there the smudges though?

[Plusck]

Probably got tired of having to repaint the logos immediately after every launch. I don't suppose peeling and/or sullied and/or half-burnt paintwork is good advertisement - that sort of image kind of plays into "throwing money into space and killing trees while you're at it" mindset.

[Phineas Freak]

5 hours ago, Plusck said:

Probably got tired of having to repaint the logos immediately after every launch. I don't suppose peeling and/or sullied and/or half-burnt paintwork is good advertisement - that sort of image kind of plays into "throwing money into space and killing trees while you're at it" mindset.

Exactly, it was done for economic reasons. Having to (re)paint a logo with each launch quickly becomes expensive.

[Delta_8930]

14 hours ago, PB666 said:

look carefully, i think you will find that it is a slightly different launch tower.

I'm pretty sure they are the same tower. Building an Atlas V launch tower takes a lot of hard work. Why do that when you already have a functioning launch tower?

[Delta_8930]

Huh. ULA and its cost saving moves. Now they don't even paint the Delta flight number onto the triangle logo on Delta rockets. They don't even paint starts on them that record the number of consecutive successes. Also, they are also phasing out the single stick Delta IV rockets, since they are more "expensive" than Atlas. Is it because Delta IV is more capable and therefore more expensive to operate, or is it just ULA wants to purposefully keep on using the Russian RD-180 engine?

[PB666]

57 minutes ago, Delta_8930 said:

I'm pretty sure they are the same tower. Building an Atlas V launch tower takes a lot of hard work. Why do that when you already have a functioning launch tower?

 There are other differences besides the logos, hey maybe there contract with the united rocket tower logo painting union expired. Isn't this kind of trivial for a science forum, just photoshop the labels onto the tower and send it back to them. lol.