SPACE reports, “United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) powerful new Vulcan Centaur rocket is two for two. Vulcan Centaur, the successor to ULA’s workhorse Atlas V, launched today (Oct. 4) at 7:25 a.m. EDT (1125 GMT)after a series of holds, from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, kicking off a key test flight called Cert-2. The rocket could soon be certified for U.S. national security missions.” Full Story (SPACE)
Video
Vulcan Centaur rocket launches on 2nd test flight (Launch at 00:10 mark)
(VideoFromSpace; YouTube)
SPACE reports United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket is set for its first U.S. Space Force mission, promising cost-effective launches and advanced technology. “In late 2024 or early 2025, United Launch Alliance (ULA)’s Vulcan Centaur rocket will fly its first of more than two dozen U.S. Space Force missions allocated under a national security space launch contract.” Full Story (SPACE)
Breaking Defense reports, “ULA CEO Tory Bruno explained that Air Force space acquisition czar Frank Calvelli asked Lockheed Martin and Boeing to create an independent review team to ‘help’ Vulcan production rates and launch site readiness remain on track.” Full Story (Breaking Defense)
Gizmodo reports United Launch Alliance’s “202-foot-tall (61.6-meter) Vulcan Centaur rocket is set to launch from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral” on Monday, January 8. According to Gizmodo, this is a “huge deal, as it marks the debut of ULA’s first new rocket design in 18 years. While the (mostly) expendable Vulcan Centaur may not be revolutionary from a technological perspective, it represents a significant evolutionary step for ULA.” Full Story (Gizmodo)
SPACE reports that the premiere “of the Space Coast’s newest launch vehicle, carrying a moon lander aiming for the first commercial touchdown, will likely slip to the beginning of 2024.” United Launch Alliance (ULA) “performed a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) of the company’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket over the weekend, which includes loading propellant into the spacecraft and running through launch-day procedures up to the moments before engine ignition.” However, the test did not go to plan. A social media post from ULA CEO Tory Bruno Sunday indicated the test “ran the timeline long so we didn’t quite finish.” Vulcan’s first launch, “which includes the rocket’s Centaur second stage, was scheduled for Dec. 24 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in coastal Florida.” But the incomplete WDR “means that window is likely out.” The next window “opens Jan. 8, and will last four days, the CEO clarified in a follow-up post.” Each of those opportunities “include an instantaneous launch window to accommodate the mission’s main payload: Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, headed for the moon.” Full Story (SPACE)
Ars Technica reports, “After the impressive debut of the Vulcan rocket in January, it is unclear when the heavy lift vehicle will fly again. The uncertainty is due to a couple of factors, including the rocket’s readiness and, perhaps more critically, what will fly on top of it.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)
Aviation Week reports that on May 25, United Launch Alliance announced that it has “canceled the planned…static hot fire of its first Vulcan-Centaur rocket to review an issue with the booster engine ignition system.” Full Story (Aviation Week)
Aviation Week (5/11) reports that a “United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan-Centaur rocket was rolled out to its launchpad on May 11 for a final series of tests ahead of its debut launch, targeted for this summer.” Space News reports ULA said on Thursday that the “Vulcan is in position atop SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to undergo a full launch day rehearsal tomorrow and flight readiness firing test of its main engines planned for next week.” ULA CEO Tory Bruno tweeted on Wednesday that the “Vulcan was returning to tanking tests although the investigation of a Centaur upper-stage testing anomaly that occurred on March 29 has not yet been completed.” Bruno said that “ULA plans to livestream the flight-readiness test firing of the BE-4 main engines. The test fire is expected to last about six seconds, he said. ‘A short burn, but a very long time to be on the pad.’” Full Story (Aviation Week); More Info (Space News)
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports that United Launch Alliance “has its missing rocket piece in hand at Cape Canaveral and all systems are go for a Christmas Eve launch to mark the debut of its Vulcan Centaur rocket.” A new Centaur upper stage “arrived by barge to the Space Coast on Monday, a replacement for the stage ULA originally planned to fly on the Certification-1 mission this past May.” That initial flight, “already delayed for nearly two years, was again put on hold after an issue with a test version of the Centaur stage was destroyed amid a massive fireball in the spring, requiring design changes to ensure a repeat didn’t happen during actual liftoff.” ULA has been anxious “to get this debut launch off the ground with its primary payload of Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lunar lander, part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services missions.” The lander “traveled from Astrobotic’s headquarters in Pittsburgh arriving to the Space Coast on Oct. 31.” Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)
CNBC reported the US Space Force “plans to buy even more rocket launches from companies in the coming years than previously expected, granting more companies a chance at securing billions in potential contracts.” Amid increasing need to improve “military capabilities in space,” the US plans to “almost triple the number of launches in Phase 3 that it bought in Phase 2 in 2020.” Full Story (CNBC)
Aviation Week reported that “despite delays with United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) new Vulcan Centaur rocket, the U.S. Space Force will require two missions prior to using the booster for national security space (NSSL) missions.” Full Story (Aviation Week)
Space News reports that the “first launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket is now scheduled for no earlier than May 4, a date the company says is based on remaining tests of the rocket and its main engines as well as launch windows for its primary payload.” In a call with reporters Thursday, ULA CEO Tory Bruno “announced the date for the long-awaited inaugural flight of the rocket as the company gears up for a series of tests of the rocket at Space Launch Complex 41. The launch will carry Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, two demonstration satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband constellation and a payload for space memorial company Celestis.” Bruno said, “We are now targeting the fourth of May so we plan our manifest around that and be ready to fly that payload when it comes in.” According to Space News, “ULA will have a window of about four days to conduct the launch.” Full Story (Space News)
The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Space Coast “has another new rocket in town as the United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur arrived by ship over the weekend ahead of its first-ever launch this year.” The replacement for ULA’s Atlas V and Delta IV rockets “still has testing to endure at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, as well as the integration of its payloads, but the hardware separated into three massive parts was offloaded from the company’s RocketShip transport on Sunday.” It arrived at Port Canaveral “the day before after traveling more than 2,000 miles by river and ocean rom ULA’s factory in Decatur, Alabama.” Its arrival “marks the fourth new orbital-class rocket to call the Space Coast home in just over a year joining NASA’s Space Launch System that took off from Kennedy Space Center for the first time last November on the Artemis I mission, small rocket provider Astra Space’s Rocket 3.3, which had two launches from Cape Canaveral, and Relativity Space’s Terran-1, a 3D-printed rocket awaiting its first-ever launch early this year from Canaveral as well.” Full Story (Orlando Sentinel – Subscription publication)
The New York Times reports that in 2022, NASA “wowed us with cosmic scenes captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.” The DART mission “slammed an asteroid into a new orbit. Artemis I set humanity on a course back to the moon.” China finished “building a new space station in orbit, SpaceX launched 61 rockets in 12 months, and the invasion of Ukraine imperiled Russia’s status as a space power.” It’s a lot “to measure up to, but 2023 is bound to have some excitement on the launchpad, the lunar surface and in the sky.” SpaceX is building Starship for Artemis III and “numerous other rockets may take flight for the first time in 2023.” The most important, Vulcan Centaur by United Launch Alliance, “will eventually replace that company’s Atlas V, a vehicle that has been central to American spaceflight for two decades.” A number of “American private companies are expected to test new rockets in 2023, including Relativity and ABL.” They could “be joined by foreign rocket makers, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries which could test Japan’s H3 rocket in February, and Arianespace, which is working toward a test flight of Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket.” We’re guaranteed “at least one lunar landing attempt in 2023.” A Japanese company, ispace, “launched its M1 mission on a SpaceX rocket in December.” It’s taking a “slow, fuel-efficient route to the moon and is set to arrive in April, when it will try to deploy a rover built by the United Arab Emirates, a robot built by Japan’s space agency, JAXA, as well as other payloads.” Full Story (New York Times)
Gizmodo reports United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno tweeted that company’s Vulcan rocket’s earliest estimated launch date would be “June/July.” ULA previously planned a May 4 inaugural flight, but in late March a spark triggered a fireball during testing of a Vulcan upper stage at the test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. The Vulcan’s first launch “is set to deliver Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, which, on behalf of NASA, will attempt to deliver 11 payloads to the surface of the Moon.” Full Story (Gizmodo)
Space News reported that the US Space Force Space Systems Command announced Friday that United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and SpaceX “were selected to participate in technology development projects to advance rocket engine testing and launch vehicle upper stages.” The contracts, awarded to the companies by the Space Enterprise Consortium, are “for prototypes that will be jointly funded by the government and the contractors under partnerships known as OTAs, or other transaction authority.” According to Space News, the “contracts were split between current national security launch providers SpaceX and ULA, and new entrants Blue Origin and Rocket Lab that might compete in 2024 for the next round of national security launch service contracts.” ULA will receive “$24.3 million for uplink command and control for Centaur 5, the upper stage of the company’s new rocket Vulcan Centaur.” Full Story (Space News)
Space News reports that United Launch Alliance said Wednesday that the company will use its Atlas 5 rocket for the USSF-51 mission. The mission was supposed to be “the first national security mission for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket,” but the Vulcan has fallen behind schedule. The USSF-51 mission was “awarded to ULA in August 2020 and is scheduled to launch in late 2022.” USSF-51 is a “classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.” Full Story (Space News)
Space News reports that on August 24, US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall “met with the chief executives of United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin and was briefed on the Vulcan Centaur, a new launch vehicle developed by ULA that is powered by Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines.” According to Space News, the “main topic of the meeting were the delays in the development and testing of the BE-4 rocket engine that ULA needs in order to fly its new rocket.” Kendall didn’t provide details of his discussions with ULA CEO Tory Bruno and Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith, but “he expressed confidence that they will be able to work through the problems.” Kendall added that one of the reasons “he pushed to have two providers in the national security space launch program is to offer a fallback in case one of them isn’t able to launch payloads.” Kendall said that he believes ULA and Blue Origin “will probably get there, and they’re motivated to do that. So we’ll see what happens. Hopefully we’ll be all right and they won’t have any additional schedule delays.” Full Story (Space News)
January 8, 2024 –Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) issued the following statement from AIAA CEO Dan Dumbacher:
“Congratulations to the ULA team on today’s Vulcan Centaur Launch! It is exciting to witness this new space launch capability complete its first certification mission. We are pleased to see the positive results of ULA’s partnership with Blue Origin to develop and utilize two BE-4 engines on the vehicle.
We are thrilled to follow Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander’s journey to the moon. This mission is an important part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to deliver science and technology to the lunar service. We are encouraged to see commercial space companies advancing technology in the cislunar ecosystem. Expanding the boundaries leads to success.
AIAA recognizes the countless industry professionals making this mission a success. We applaud AIAA Corporate Member ULA for making important contributions to shaping the future of aerospace.”
About AIAA The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, andInstagram.
Video
ULA’s Vulcan rocket, carrying lunar lander, launches for the first time
(Spaceflight Now; YouTube)
Ars Technica reports, “Last October, United Launch Alliance started stacking its third Vulcan rocket on a mobile launch platform in Florida in preparation for a mission for the US Space Force by the end of the year. That didn’t happen, and ULA is still awaiting the Space Force’s formal certification of its new rocket, further pushing out delivery schedules for numerous military satellites booked to fly to orbit on the Vulcan launcher.” Full Story (Ars Technica)
