United Launch Alliance recently announced they’re targeting to launch its latest Vulcan rocket on Christmas Eve and are within the midst of ultimate preparations.
The primary stage of the Vulcan rocket was stacked onto the Vulcan Launch Platform on October twenty sixth, with each GEM 63XL solid rocket side boosters installed on October thirty first and November sixth.
LVOS ✅
SRBs Installed ✅
Centaur V Departure ✅Read more in our blog concerning the #VulcanRocket #Cert1 launch campaign getting underway! https://t.co/LvYOpeXXvm pic.twitter.com/BEF9wQ71st
— ULA (@ulalaunch) November 7, 2023
This comes because the Centaur V 2nd stage was finished with reinforcements following an anomaly on a special Cenaur V earlier within the 12 months on a test stand. ULA loaded up the reinforced Centaur V onto its R/S Rocket Ship, which is currently making its way down the Mississippi River and can arrive at Port Canaveral in the approaching days.
With the announcement of the launch date, the rocket’s first payload, Astrobotics Peregrine lunar lander was shipped right down to Florida for integration onto the 2nd stage adapter and eventual encapsulation within the fairing.
Once the 2nd stage arrives back in Florida, it can be attached to the Vulcan first stage and ULA will conduct a Wet Dress Rehearsal after which move the rocket back to the Vertical Integration Facility for the payload to be attached. The rocket already accomplished a successful static fire earlier this 12 months, with a brief firing of the BE-4 engines at Space Launch Complex 41.
🔥 Flight Readiness Firing 🔥 #VulcanRocket #CountdownToVulcan pic.twitter.com/j2R7g7uBya
— ULA (@ulalaunch) June 9, 2023
The debut launch of Vulcan has been an extended time coming for United Launch Alliance as they make moves to catch as much as SpaceX. ULA has been working toward multiple launch attempts over the past 12 months, but with delays from Blue Origin and their BE-4 engines, they were forced to attend after which delayed even further as a consequence of the 2nd stage anomaly.
Those delays have caused 1 payload meant for the inaugural flight to be moved from the Vulcan to the Atlas V with Amazon’s Kuiper web constellation satellite prototypes launching last month on the Atlas V and with all the other Atlas V rockets being claimed by other payloads and the Delta IV Heavy retiring after its next two flights, ULA must be certain that the rocket performs flawlessly on the Certification 1 mission and is able to launching National Security missions safely for the U.S. Government, its primary payload provider in the intervening time.
With all that being said, ULA is closer than ever to launching Vulcan this 12 months after many, including myself, didn’t expect to see it fly until early 2024.
What do you think that? Will Vulcan fly this 12 months or be delayed into 2024?