United Launch Alliance
The Vulcan rocket took a critical step toward its much-anticipated debut launch last week with a successful engine-firing test. Nevertheless, one critical issue stays unresolved before the big booster can lift off.
This final hurdle involves modifications to the rocket’s Centaur V upper stage, which exploded during a test at the top of March. On Tuesday, the chief executive of Vulcan manufacturer United Launch Alliance, Tory Bruno, wrote on Twitter that a root reason for the failure had been identified, and the investigation has been concluded.
As a part of their recent updates, neither Bruno nor United Launch Alliance established a brand new goal launch date. Two sources indicated to Ars, nonetheless, that this flight likely wouldn’t occur before the fourth quarter of this 12 months resulting from additional needed work.
Flight readiness firing
United Launch Alliance accomplished a vital milestone on June 7 when it conducted a hot-fire test of Vulcan’s first-stage engines. The BE-4 engines, built by Blue Origin, began the ignition sequence at T-4.88 seconds and, in accordance with the corporate, throttled as much as the goal power level for 2 seconds before powering down.
Although the corporate needs to completely review data from the test, it gave the impression to be an entire success. This long-awaited firing of the important engines closes what had been believed to be the most important outstanding issue with the rocket prior to its debut launch—before the Centaur anomaly occurred. Delivery of the BE-4 engines had been delayed for several years while Blue Origin accomplished its development and testing.
“The team is reviewing the info from the systems involved in today’s test and, in parallel, proceed with the Centaur V test stand anomaly investigation,” the corporate said in a press release after the test firing. “Pending the info review and the investigation results, we are going to develop a launch plan. Testing is an integral a part of our launch vehicle development program, and we are going to fly after we consider it’s protected to launch.”
Centaur update
In replies on Twitter Tuesday, Bruno provided the primary public confirmation that the United Launch Alliance’s investigation into the Centaur failure is complete. Although the report will not be public, it seems that the hydrogen tank failed during a pressure test at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.
“The super thin, high performance steel skin must be slightly thicker near the highest of the dome,” Bruno said, adding, “Working corrective motion and retest.”
This comment implies that a Centaur qualification tank will likely be made more robust after which undergo pressure testing at Marshall later this summer. It’s unclear whether the flight version of the Centaur stage, which had already been delivered to the launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, can even have to be modified. If that’s the case, this testing and modification work will likely take just a few months.
Asked whether the flight tank needed to be modified, Bruno replied cryptically, saying, “Working on all of that now.”
Space Force is keeping tabs
Throughout all of this, United Launch Alliance has been working closely with the US Space Force, which has been the corporate’s most vital customer since ULA’s inception nearly 20 years ago.
In 2020, as a part of its “National Security Space Launch Phase 2” program, the US military awarded United Launch Alliance and SpaceX five-year contracts to launch about 40 missions between fiscal 12 months 2022 and 2028. As a part of this program, United Launch Alliance won 60 percent of the launches, and SpaceX got 40 percent.
Nevertheless, there have been growing concerns in regards to the readiness of Vulcan, which was speculated to start launching national security missions in 2022. That can no longer occur until not less than 2024 because Vulcan must fly two “certification” flights before it’s deemed protected enough for useful reconnaissance satellites.
Notably, in an announcement last Friday, Space Systems Command said it recently assigned a dozen Phase 2 missions to the 2 launch corporations. These launches were split equally between United Launch Alliance and SpaceX somewhat than in a 60-40 split.
Moreover, just last week, a US Government Accountability Office report mentioned that delays were causing military officials working on the Phase 2 launch program to contemplate their options. “Within the event that Vulcan is unavailable for future missions, program officials stated that the Phase 2 contract allows for the flexibility to reassign missions to the opposite provider,” the report states.
