United Launch Alliance will launch a military satellite that will better detect and track missile threats around the world. So far, it looks good for the Thursday launch.ULA's Atlas 5 rocket has been a workhorse for the military, sending sensitive and classified satellites into orbit for years. Thursday's USSF-12 mission will not be different. In the payload will be an improved missile tracking and observing satellite with a better focus on new threats like hypersonic missiles."The threat is evolving at an unprecedentedly fast pace that we have not seen before. We are looking at a range of targets and missiles in the hypersonic domain that are more maneuverable, and they are dimmer, harder to see,” said Col. Brian Denaro, of Space Force.Those evolving threats are being developed in both China and Russia.But things will be different in the next few years – the Atlas V is being phased out as ULA works on its next-generation Vulcan rocket with Blue Origin. And that's a good thing because the Atlas V uses Russian-made engines."We are in the process of working with an industry partner to develop a replacement for the Vulcan engine, for a Vulcan engine. And that's Blue Origin and we are expecting to get those here in the summer,” said Gary Wentz, with ULA.The first national security launch for ULA's Vulcan is now scheduled for the end of 2023.Thursday's launch window opens at 6 p.m.