ULA: Vulcan-Centaur Cert-2 test flight

[DocM]

US Space Force certification test #2

Vulcan uses liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellants. It has two Blue Origin BE-4 engines in the first stage.

The Centaur upper stage uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, and two Aerojet Rocketdyne RL-10C-X engines.

Vulcan Centaur has similar performance in SpaceX Falcon Heavy, but a larger diameter & (for now) longer  payload fairing.

Not reusable.

++++++

Date: October 4, 2024

Window: 0600 - 0900 Eastern

Pad: LC-41, CCSFS

Payload: mass simulator

Experiments: Centaur upper stage tests

No payload, so ULA will eat the costs.

https://spacenews.com/ula-set-for-second-vulcan-launch/

 

Edited October 3 by DocM

[Astra.Xtreme]

I wonder when Vandenberg operations are going to come online.  I got to work with those guys earlier in the year on the mechanism that moves the rocket from horizontal in the assembly bay to vertical on the mobile pad.  That was a fun physics problem with the moving center of gravity. 
ULA built a really nice rocket, but too bad it's not reusable.

[DocM]

On 03/10/2024 at 13:32, Astra.Xtreme said:

I wonder when Vandenberg operations are going to come online.  I got to work with those guys earlier in the year on the mechanism that moves the rocket from horizontal in the assembly bay to vertical on the mobile pad.  That was a fun physics problem with the moving center of gravity. 
ULA built a really nice rocket, but too bad it's not reusable.

 

ULA  says Vandenberg launches should start sometime in 2025. There have been so many delays with this thing, who knows?

In the broader picture, I don't see a very long life for Vulcan.

First, ULA is up for sale. Several companies have tried to negotiate a purchase, including Blue Origin and Sierra Space, but a price couldn't be agreed to. Boeing & Lockheed want too much. 

Second, Blue Origin will soon be flying New Glenn which has Falcon 9 style reusability. If Blue bought ULA they might just fly out Vulcan's already contracted launches then fly nothing but New Glenn. Cheaper to operate.

Third, they've been losing staff to the NewSpace companies like SpaceX, Blue, Rocket Lab, Firefly and others. 

[Astra.Xtreme]

On 03/10/2024 at 13:04, DocM said:

 

ULA  says Vandenberg launches should start sometime in 2025. There have been so many delays with this thing, who knows?

In the broader picture, I don't see a very long life for Vulcan.

First, ULA is up for sale. Several companies have tried to negotiate a purchase, including Blue Origin and Sierra Space, but a price couldn't be agreed to. Boeing & Lockheed want too much. 

Second, Blue Origin will soon be flying New Glenn which has Falcon 9 style reusability. If Blue bought ULA they might just fly out Vulcan's already contracted launches then fly nothing but New Glenn. Cheaper to operate.

Third, they've been losing staff to the NewSpace companies like SpaceX, Blue, Rocket Lab, Firefly and others. 

Very true.  I think it's heavily reliant on Blue's success and whether they can be trusted with government payloads.  The govt likely wants multiple launch providers, so they've been pigeonholed with SpaceX and ULA this whole time.
Blue's glacial pace of development is concerning (to me at least).  I got to start up some machinery in their TCAT building back in 2020 and they had segments of New Glenn built back then.  It's been 4 years since that, and they're finally "almost" ready to launch it.  They're aiming for perfection on launch #1 and I'm not too optimistic that it'll go as planned.  That philosophy works okay for expendable rockets, but reusable ones are a bigger beast that requires trial and error (ala SpaceX).  Queue years and years of delays when the landings don't go well.  The Centaur might be a workhorse for a while, haha.

[DocM]

On 03/10/2024 at 14:30, Astra.Xtreme said:

 Queue years and years of delays when the landings don't go well.  The Centaur might be a workhorse for a while, haha.

 

If NASA and Congress would grow a brain they would cancel the SLS exploration upper stage and replace it with Centaur 5. It'd save  them several $billion, and it would already be flying so easy to evolve - perhaps into something like ACES. 

[DocM]

Launch stream...

 

 

[DocM]

The first and second stage worked pretty well, but the Northrop Grumman GEM-63XL solid boosters need some work. At about T+47 booster 1 blew off its nozzle. A few seconds later Vulcan rolled, then corrected. Lucky something didn't break off.

Obviously Northrop Grumman has some explaining to do; four of these posters have flown and one has failed, a failure rate of 25%. Back to the test stand...

Vulcan tolerated it pretty well, corrected for the thrust loss & imbalance etc. and completed the mission.

[DocM]

Scott Manley weighs in