BERLIN — All the main components for the primary Vulcan Centaur rocket at the moment are on the launch site as United Launch Alliance prepares for a launch in late December.
In a call with reporters Nov. 15, ULA Chief Executive Tory Bruno said that the Centaur upper stage for that mission, called Cert-1 by the corporate, arrived at Cape Canaveral on Nov. 13. Staff at the moment are preparing the stage in a facility there before installing it atop the Vulcan booster.
Once the 2 stages are integrated, ULA will perform one other wet dress rehearsal where each stages are loaded with propellants and undergo a practice countdown. “Then we might be standing by and able to encapsulate after which integrate our spacecraft,” he said.
The first payload for Cert-1 is Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, which is carrying payloads for NASA’s Industrial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program in addition to several other customers. Also on the rocket is a payload from space memorial company Celestis that can remain attached to the Centaur.
Peregrine’s specific requirements, including lighting conditions at its landing site and staying in continuous contact with NASA’s Deep Space Network, drove the launch opportunities to a few instantaneous windows, the primary of which is Dec. 24 at 1:49 a.m. Eastern.
Two backup windows are on Dec. 25 and 26. ULA didn’t disclose the times of those windows in the decision, but in a Nov. 14 presentation in regards to the CLPS program to an advisory committee, NASA’s Joel Kearns said the launch windows are at 1:53 a.m. Eastern on Dec. 25 and a pair of:08 a.m. Eastern on Dec. 26. All three windows would arrange a landing at about 3:30 a.m. Eastern Jan. 25.
Bruno said preparations are on schedule to support that launch opportunity. “We’re actually pacing a few days ahead of that,” he said. “Fingers crossed.”
Besides sending Peregrine on its strategy to the moon, ULA will test this upgraded version of the Centaur, called Centaur 5. “There might be additional maneuvers performed just to offer us a possibility to exercise the Centaur 5; really confirm but mostly find out about its quirks as we go put it through its paces in preparation for missions that’ll come later.”
A hit on Cert-1 would allow the second Vulcan mission, Cert-2, to launch in the primary or second quarter of 2024, Bruno said. That can carry the primary Dream Chaser spacecraft for Sierra Space. The remaining of the manifest for 2024 remains to be being coordinated, but he noted that missions for Amazon’s Project Kuiper in 2024 will use the Atlas 5.
ULA plans to ramp up the Vulcan launch rate to twice a month by the top of 2025 as it really works to fly off a backlog of 70 launches that he said is “pretty even” between government and business customers.
While Bruno discussed details in regards to the way forward for Vulcan, he was more circumspect in regards to the company’s future. He said in a Bloomberg interview in October that the corporate, a three way partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, might be a sexy acquisition goal. “If I were buying an area business, I’d go have a look at ULA,” he said then. One other report Nov. 13 by Ars Technica said three firms, including Blue Origin, are finalists to accumulate the corporate.
“I could never discuss and even speculate in regards to the merger or acquisition situation,” Bruno said in the decision a couple of potential sale of ULA. “I did say that ULA is in great shape after our transformation and our full, now a few years long, presence within the business marketplace.”