United Launch Alliance (ULA) first Vulcan rocket has been unveiled, making its way from the hangar to the launch pad in Florida. This marks a significant step forward after a decade of development and testing for the Vulcan rocket. The full-size 202-foot-tall rocket was assembled last month and had been enclosed within scaffolding in ULA’s vertical hangar at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station until now.
The mobile launch platform, carrying the Vulcan rocket, was rolled to the launch pad ahead of the scheduled liftoff on Monday at 2:18 am EST. The rocket will undergo propellant loading, including methane, liquid hydrogen, and liquid oxygen, during an 11-hour countdown on Sunday afternoon.
ULA has a 45-minute launch window on Monday, and weather conditions are favorable with an 85 percent chance of good weather. Backup launch opportunities are available on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. If necessary, the next available launch window after Thursday is on January 23.
The inaugural flight of the Vulcan rocket carries a commercial robotic Moon lander developed by Astrobotic, based in Pennsylvania. United Launch Alliance
This is a big moment for ULA, a 50-50 joint venture formed in 2006 by the merger of Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s launch divisions. The Vulcan rocket, quite literally, is the embodiment of the company’s future, said Mark Peller, ULA’s vice president of Vulcan development. It will replace ULA’s fleet of Atlas and Delta rockets, with lineages dating back to the early years of the Space Age.
“There was an opportunity to develop a new rocket that can do everything Atlas and Delta could do, but do it with even greater performance, and taking advantage of the latest technology,” Peller said Friday. “The system that we’ve developed, and we’re about to fly, is really positioning us for a very bright, prosperous future for many, many years to come.”
Facing stiff competition from SpaceX, still an upstart in the launch business a decade ago, ULA officials decided they needed a new rocket that was cheaper to build and fly than the Atlas V and Delta IV. Ars has traced the history of Vulcan, a timeline that includes lawsuits, a change in corporate leadership, delays and setbacks, and, most recently, reports that Boeing and Lockheed Martin have put ULA up for sale.