United Launch Alliance will not debut its next-generation Vulcan rocket in 2023, as previously planned.
Launch company CEO Tori Bruno announces postponement on social media site X on sunday. United Launch Alliance had scheduled the lift booster’s debut flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Christmas Eve.
Bruno made the announcement after the company attempted to complete a full rocket fueling test known as a wet dress rehearsal.
“The vehicle performed well,” Bruno wrote. “There were some (routine) issues with the ground system that we are (fixing). We ran the timeline too long so it was not fully completed. We need a full WDR before the first flight. So Christmas Eve will probably be released. The next Peregrine window is January 8th.”
Peregrine is the rocket’s primary payload and is a lunar lander built by Astrobotic to provide scientific experiments for NASA and other payloads to the moon. It has a specific launch window to reach the moon and attempt to land in ideal lighting conditions.
From the information contained in Bruno’s comment, work to modify the ground system to fuel Vulcan (the first stage propellant is methane, something the United Launch Alliance has not previously undertaken) seems to take long enough to preclude another refueling. The tests were conducted ahead of the rocket’s late December launch period. Therefore, the next launch is likely to take place after January 8th.
light rhythm
It’s been a slow year for United Launch Alliance, which dominated the U.S. launch industry a decade ago. The company plans to launch just three rockets this calendar year. These include the classified NROL-68 mission on the Delta IV Heavy rocket in June, the National Reconnaissance Office’s “Silent Barker” mission on the Atlas V in September, and two Project Kuiper satellites. Atlas V on Amazon in October.
This is the company’s lowest launch total since its founding in 2006, when Lockheed Martin and Boeing’s rocket businesses merged.
Part of the reason for the low total is that United Launch Alliance is transitioning from its historic Delta and Atlas rockets to Vulcan rockets. The Vulcan rocket is intended to be more cost-competitive with other commercial rockets, such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. rocket. Once Vulcans start flying regularly, there will be a lot of demand.
But another factor was that the lower cost and equally reliable Falcon rocket took commercial and government launch business from United Launch Alliance. SpaceX has steadily improved its position over the past decade while United Launch Alliance has struggled to compete.
Although Bruno’s company launched just three rockets in 2023, SpaceX launched three rockets in three days several times during the calendar year. SpaceX will likely end the year with a total of 95 to 100 launches.