A brand new rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, early Monday morning, sending a robotic spacecraft to the surface of the moon. No American spacecraft has made a soft landing on the moon since 1972.
The successful launch of the Vulcan Centaur rocket was crucial for United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Vulcan is designed to replace two older rockets, and the U.S. Space Force also relies on Vulcan to launch spy satellites and other spacecraft important to U.S. national security.
Vulcan is also the first of several new rockets that could unseat Elon Musk’s company SpaceX’s current dominance of the space launch market. SpaceX sent nearly 100 rockets into orbit last year. Other first orbital launches in the coming months could include the Ariane 6 rocket from Arianespace, a European company, and New Glenn from Blue Origin, a company founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
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Throughout the night, the countdown for the Vulcan rocket went smoothly and the weather was suitable.
At 2:18 a.m. Eastern time, the rocket’s engines ignited and it lifted off from the launch pad, heading upward and east over the Atlantic Ocean.
“Everything looks good,” Rob Gannon, United Launch Alliance’s launch commentator, said repeatedly as Vulcan headed into space.
“Yes,” company CEO Tory Bruno said following the deployment of the lunar spacecraft. “I am very excited. I can’t say how much.”
United Launch Alliance was founded in 2006 and for seven years was the only company certified by the U.S. government to launch national security payloads into orbit. It has used two vehicles so far: the Delta IV, developed by Boeing, which will complete its final flight later this year, and the Atlas V, developed by Lockheed Martin, which will also be retired within a few years.
Seventeen Atlas V launches remain, but the rocket uses Russian-made engines that have become more politically untenable as tensions between Russia and the United States rise. That led ULA to begin developing Vulcan, which replaces the capabilities of both rockets at a lower cost, United Launch Alliance officials said.
“What makes Vulcan unique and what we set out to do initially was to provide a rocket that had all the capabilities of Atlas and Delta in a single system,” said Mark Peller, ULA vice president for development of Vulcan. “Because we have this adjustability, its configuration can really be tailored to the specific task.”
Vulcan can be configured in various ways. The core booster stage, the main body of the rocket, is powered by two BE-4 engines manufactured by Blue Origin. The engines, which emit deep blue flames by burning methane fuel, will also be used in Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
Up to six solid rocket fuel boosters can be attached to the side of the core to increase the amount of mass it can lift into orbit. The nose cone is available in two sizes; standard size is 51 feet long and 70 feet long for larger loads.
“The launch market is more robust than it has been in decades,” said Carissa Christensen, managing director of Bryce Tech, a consulting firm in Alexandria, Virginia. “And the expected demand is likely to be sufficient to support multiple launch providers, including Vulcan.”
ULA currently has a backlog of more than 70 missions to fly on Vulcan. Amazon has purchased 38 launches to be deployed for Project Kuiper, a suite of communications satellites that will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink network to provide high-speed satellite internet.
Most of the other launches will be for the Space Force. ULA and SpaceX are currently the only companies approved to launch national security missions. Monday’s launch is the first of two demonstration missions the Space Force has requested to gain Vulcan’s trust before using the launcher for military and surveillance payloads.
The second launch will lift Dream Chaser, an uncrewed spaceplane built by Sierra Space in Louisville, Colorado, for a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. This could be followed by four additional Vulcan launches for the Space Force this year.
The main payload on Vulcan’s first launch was Peregrine, a spacecraft built by Pittsburgh Astrobotic Technology. Founded in 2007, Astrobotic is one of several private companies aiming to provide delivery services to the lunar surface. The main client for this trip is NASA, which paid Astrobotic $108 million to conduct five experiments. This is part of the scientific work the space agency is conducting to prepare for the return of astronauts to the moon as part of the Artemis program.
Unlike in the past, when NASA built and operated its own spacecraft, this time it entrusts transportation to companies such as Astrobotic.
The second burn of Vulcan’s second stage engine, lasting about four minutes, sent Peregrine on its way to the moon. “This is a dream,” John Thornton, Astrobotic’s chief executive, said on the NASA Television broadcast after the launch. “We’re on our way to the moon.”
Approximately 50 minutes after launch, the Astrobotic spacecraft separated from the rocket.
After a 2.5-week journey to the moon, the Peregrine lander will enter orbit around the moon and remain there until February 23, when it will attempt to land in Sinus Viscositatis, Latin for “Gulf of Stickiness.” mysterious region on the near side of the moon.
Vulcan also lifted a secondary payload for Celestis, a company that commemorates humans by sending some of their ashes, or DNA, into space. Two toolbox-sized containers attached to Vulcan’s upper stage house small cylindrical capsules.
Among those whose remains were found on this final journey were Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry; his wife, Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Chapel on the original television show; and three other actors on the show: DeForest Kelley, who plays paramedic Leonard “Bones” McCoy; Nichelle Nichols, who plays communications officer Uhura; and James Doohan, who plays chief engineer Montgomery Scott.
One of the capsules contains hair samples of three American presidents: George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
A final short engine firing sent the second stage and the Celestis monument into orbit around the sun.
Besides Celestis, another company offering similar services, San Francisco’s Elysium Space, also has a payload on Peregrine. This sparked a protest from leaders of the Navajo Nation, who said many Native Americans viewed the moon as a sacred site and viewed it as disrespectful to send human remains there. Navajo officials asked the White House to postpone the launch to discuss the issue.
Celestis CEO Charles Chafer said he respects the religious beliefs of all people, but “I don’t think you can regulate space missions based on religious reasons.”
During press conferences, NASA officials stated that they were not responsible for the mission and had no direct say over other payloads that Astrobotic sold on Peregrine. “An intergovernmental meeting is being arranged with the Navajo Nation that NASA will support,” Joel Kearns, NASA’s deputy administrator for exploration, said at a news conference Thursday.
John Thornton, Astrobotic’s general manager, said Friday that he was disappointed “that this conversation is coming out so late in the game” because his company had announced Celestis and Elysium’s involvement years ago.
“We’re really trying to do the right thing,” Thornton said. “Hopefully we can find a good path forward with the Navajo Nation.”
In 2018, NASA announced a program to utilize private industry for lunar deliveries, called Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS for short. However, this program was slow to come to fruition. After repeated delays, Astrobotic’s Peregrine flight will be the first CLPS mission to space and the first to arrive in lunar orbit. But he may not be the first to land.
A second CLPS mission, to be carried out by Intuitive Machines in Houston, is scheduled to launch in mid-February and have a faster path to the moon, meaning it could reach the surface before Peregrine.
While Vulcan has multiple payloads to launch in the next few years, its long-term prospects are less clear. Other aerospace companies are looking to win some of the Space Force business, and Amazon may shift more of its Kuiper launches to Bezos’ Blue Origin in the future.
Another factor affecting Vulcan’s future is SpaceX’s ability to land and reuse Falcon 9 thrusters; This would likely give it a sizeable price advantage over ULA. In contrast, the entire Vulcan rocket is used only once. Blue Origin also plans to reuse New Glenn boosters.
ULA is developing technology that could be used to save the two engines in the booster, the most expensive part of the rocket, but that is still years away.
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