ULA targeting May for inaugural launch of Vulcan Centaur rocket from Florida

Space is important to us and that’s why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.

---

United Launch Alliance is targeting early May – on a date likely to excite spaceflight and "Star Wars" fans alike – for the inaugural launch of its highly anticipated Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Thursday, ULA CEO Tory Bruno told reporters the roughly 200-foot rocket will fly from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 4, taking a lunar lander, prototype broadband satellites, and human ashes for spaceflight memorial company Celestis. The date is known as "Star Wars Day" thanks to the "May the Fourth be with you" pun.

In the interim, teams at Launch Complex 41 will continue preparing the rocket in the company's nearly 300-foot Vertical Integration Facility. Bruno said engineers noticed some deviations in the performance of the BE-4 engines, which ULA purchases from Blue Origin.

"We found that our main oxygen pump was performing better than the pumps before – about 5% better," Bruno said. "Not a very large difference, but enough that we wanted to understand it."

"Even a small change can be an indicator of something else," Bruno said, adding that teams eventually concluded it was a normal variation since every engine produced will be slightly different than the last. The rocket uses a mix of liquid natural gas (LNG) and liquid oxygen (LOX) as propellants.

Ulalaunch

Embedded content: https://www.ulalaunch.com/images/default-source/default-album/vulcan_expanded-2022.jpg?sfvrsn=6e460292_2

'A unique way to honor a loved one':Inside Celestis, the company sending human ashes to space

3D printed rockets:Relativity Space's first launch of 3D-printed Terran rocket scheduled for March

Rocket launch schedule: Upcoming Florida launches and landings

Vulcan is designed to replace ULA's entire fleet of rockets, which at the beginning of its development in 2014, included Delta IV, Delta IV Heavy, and Atlas V. Though it's no longer be offered for new missions, Atlas V is the only legacy ULA rocket still in service. It's expected to continue flying through the mid-to-late 2020s to fulfill its existing contracts.. Vulcan is bigger, more powerful, and cheaper than the rockets it's replacing.

After liftoff from the Cape in May, Vulcan will take Astrobotic's Peregrine lander on a path toward the moon. NASA selected the company to deliver the lander to the northern region ahead of Artemis program astronauts returning to the surface sometime before 2030. Also in the payload fairing will be two Kuiper satellites owned by Amazon; the company is working toward launching an Earth orbit internet constellation much like SpaceX's Starlink.

Celestis, the company that offers spaceflight memorials like sending ashes to orbit, also plays a significant role in Vulcan's debut mission. It not only included human ashes in Peregrine's robotic lander, but will also send other ashes and DNA samples – many belonging to celebrities and former presidents – to deep space.

On top of streamlining the company's products and reducing costs, Vulcan's use of Blue Origin engines is a national security consideration. Atlas V flies with Russian-made RD-180 engines, a point that has resulted in pressure from various public and private organizations to move to American-made hardware.

For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: ULA targets May the 4th for Florida launch of Vulcan rocket