The Vulcan Centaur is the intended replacement for the Atlas and Delta Rocket families. Delta has one final launch occurring this year, while Atlas is expected to close out by 2029.
The initial launch is scheduled for Monday, January 8th, between 2:18 am and 3:18 am EST, from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The cargo is the Peregrine Moon Lander. This launch is also the first of two certification flights before Vulcan is allowed to fly National Security Missions.
The Vulcan booster is similar to its Atlas and Delta ancestors, but will burn liquid methane instead of liquid hydrogen. The Centaur V is an upgraded version of the Centaur III currently flying on Atlas. The new vehicle is non human rated and ULA will not seek to have it human rated, meaning that Space X will remain the sole human rated vehicle for the time being.
Right now, none of Vulcan is reusable. ULA has plans to create a detachable module that would include the engines, that would detach from the boosters after cutoff and splash down in the ocean for recovery and reuse. So far, this idea has not come to fruition. ULA needs to figure it out fast, because this is exactly why SpaceX is so badly kicking their asses.
This mission has been long delayed from the original planned 2019 date.
ULA better be praying this launch goes perfect. A launch failure at this point would be catastrophic for ULA.
We are sending a machine to the moon… I would have expected more news coverage of such an event… we really haven’t done much with the moon since the early seventies…
should be interesting… (I can’t wait until we send a big drill to the moon to prove it isn’t hollow…)
This is the official United Launch Alliance video stream of tonight’s Vulcan Centaur launch. It goes live at 1:30 am EST. Launch window opens at 2:18 am EST and closes at 3:03 am EST.
Nominal Vulcan booster flight. Obviously getting that nominal flight was HUGE for ULA.
The Centaur V completed its first burn successfully.
There will be a second burn of Centaur V in a little while, followed by separation of the Peregrine Moon Lander.
4 hours and 24 minutes into the flight, a third burn of Centaur V will place the Centaur into a heliocentric orbit, where its remaining payloads will eternally circle the sun, including cremated human remains.
