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  [Discuss] ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket

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Author Topic:   [Discuss] ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket
Robert Pearlman
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posted 04-13-2015 03:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Please use this topic to discuss United Launch Alliance's (ULA) next generation launch system, the Vulcan rocket.

cspg
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posted 04-13-2015 04:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for cspg   Click Here to Email cspg     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A Delta II on steroids?

The solids are back — quite a different design from the Delta IV.

Jim Behling
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posted 04-13-2015 06:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim Behling   Click Here to Email Jim Behling     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The solids never left. The Atlas V solids are the basis for Vulcan's. Vulcan is more like Atlas V than Delta IV. Delta IV only provides the tank diameter.

SpaceAngel
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posted 09-14-2018 05:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAngel   Click Here to Email SpaceAngel     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From what I read on Wikipedia, it says that ULA is going to discontinue the Delta rockets (including the heavy lift one) sometime in the near future; if that's the case, what kind of rockets will succeed them?

Editor's note: Threads merged.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 09-14-2018 05:51 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
ULA's intends the Vulcan to replace both its Delta and Atlas launch vehicles.

Aeropix
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posted 09-15-2018 07:53 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aeropix   Click Here to Email Aeropix     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Marketing is important. I wonder if ULA intentionally chose both the name and logo for this vehicle to be closely matching "Falcon" of SpaceX.

I'm sure nobody will ever admit it but at first glance the logos look somewhat similar in color and shape, and "Vulcan" / "Falcon" similar sounding whether you buy into this theory or not.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 09-15-2018 09:24 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
ULA employees submitted name suggestions, then the company then put it to a public vote. "Vulcan" was not on the original ballot but was added as a write-in suggestion. More than one million votes were received, leading to Vulcan being chosen.

SpaceAngel
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posted 10-10-2018 06:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAngel   Click Here to Email SpaceAngel     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
When the Delta IV and Atlas V rockets are retired, what will become of the launch complexes (i.e. 37 and 41)?

Jim Behling
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posted 10-11-2018 07:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim Behling   Click Here to Email Jim Behling     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Vulcan will fly from 41. 37 will go back to the Air Force.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 03-29-2019 02:32 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno on Twitter:
The age of Vulcan has begun... The first flight panel is being bump formed.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 06-25-2020 01:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
United Launch Alliance (ULA) video release
Vulcan Centaur is built on more than 120 combined years of launch experience. An evolution of the flight proven, highly successful Atlas V and Delta IV vehicles, Vulcan Centaur introduces a balance of new technologies and innovative features to ensure a reliable and affordable space launch service. Launching in 2021.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 01-09-2021 10:53 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From ULA CEO Tory Bruno (via Twitter):
Now that is a beautiful sight! A pair of Blue Origin BE-4 engines installed on a Vulcan Centaur booster for pathfinding operations in preparation for launch in 2021.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 08-25-2021 03:22 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From ULA CEO Tory Bruno (via Twitter):
The Vulcan Centaur PTT [Pathfinder Tanking Test] booster was transferred from the SPOC [Spaceflight Processing Operations Center] to the pad today [Aug. 25] for a series of fueling tests in the coming weeks

oly
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posted 08-25-2021 08:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for oly   Click Here to Email oly     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I wonder how many configuration changes are required between the Vulcan Centaur and Atlas launch vehicle infrastructure at the launch pad. While this test would have been scheduled into the launch site diary, configuration changes will probably reduce the chance of rescheduled launches finding an available slot that aligns with launch windows.

Is the plan for Vulcan Centaur to eventually be crew rated?

Robert Pearlman
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posted 08-25-2021 08:34 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The crew access tower was built to support both Atlas V and Vulcan, with the expectation that Starliner may move to Vulcan someday. Modifications to the Vertical Integration Facility were completed earlier such that it can support both vehicles.

The Vulcan launch platform is in use with the PTT now.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 05-04-2022 04:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno (via Twitter):
Hmmm. What do you suppose this is? I wonder if it has anything to do with the Vulcan rocket?

Previously from Bruno:

Engines!! Vulcan Flight BE-4s heading to the build stand.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 07-02-2022 05:34 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno (via Twitter) has shared a photo of the first Blue Origin BE-4 engine being prepared for its flight on Vulcan:
Here is a pic of BE-4 flight 1. And that's just from the combustion chamber up. The bell is below the platform (and out of sight) for easy access for Blue Origin's skilled technicians to assemble this part of the engine.

And from earlier, a photo of the first Vulcan booster:

SkyMan1958
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posted 07-02-2022 06:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SkyMan1958   Click Here to Email SkyMan1958     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm glad that ULA is starting to get the BE-4 and is starting the whole installation purpose. I wish them well with it, and I hope ULA is successful with the Vulcan Centaur.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 10-10-2022 11:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
United Launch Alliance has pushed the debut launch of its new Vulcan rocket to early 2023 at the request of one of its customers, Reuters reports.
"We're not going to fly before the end of the year," ULA Chief Executive Tory Bruno said in an interview with two reporters.

He added ULA's customer Astrobotic, a robotics firm using Vulcan to launch a lunar lander, asked for the launch date to be moved to the first quarter of 2023 to buy more time to finish the lander's development.

Astrobotic's request officially axes ULA's previous goal to launch Vulcan by year's end, a target already imperiled by development delays with the rocket's engines that are being built by Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin.

"The engines are later than our original schedule that had us flying in December, and it would put a lot of pressure on December," Bruno said.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 10-31-2022 10:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Blue Origin has delivered the first two BE-4 flight engines to United Launch Alliance for integration into the first Vulcan Centaur.

Flight Engine (FE) 2 is installed. FE1 will join it soon.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 02-24-2023 08:14 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The first launch of United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket is now scheduled for no earlier than May 4, reports SpaceNews.
In a call with reporters Feb. 23, ULA Chief Executive Tory Bruno announced the date for the long-awaited inaugural flight of the rocket as the company gears up for a series of tests of the rocket at Space Launch Complex 41. The launch will carry Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander, two demonstration satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband constellation and a payload for space memorial company Celestis.

"We are now targeting the fourth of May so we plan our manifest around that and be ready to fly that payload when it comes in," Bruno said. ULA will have a window of about four days to conduct the launch.

Several factors led ULA to select that date. One is the mission requirements of Peregrine, the primary payload on the launch, which has a window of only a few days each month to fly its trajectory to the moon.

A second is a series of tests of the Vulcan Centaur rocket, currently in the vertical integration facility adjacent to the pad. Bruno said the rocket will roll out to the pad "a few days from now" for tanking tests followed by at least one wet dress rehearsal where the vehicle is fully loaded with propellants and goes through a practice countdown, stopping just before engine ignition.

That will followed by what ULA calls a flight readiness firing, a wet dress rehearsal that ends with a firing of the BE-4 engines in the booster at about 70% of rated thrust for 3.5 seconds. "That is more than adequate for us to understand all of those systems," he said.

After the flight readiness firing, the rocket will return to the integration facility for payload integration, then be rolled back to the pad for launch.

In parallel, ULA and Blue Origin are finishing the formal qualification of the BE-4 engine, which Bruno described as the "pacing item" for the launch. "It's taking a little bit longer than anticipated."

Robert Pearlman
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posted 04-07-2023 04:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
On the evening of March 29, at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, United Launch Alliance started pressurizing the upper stage of its new Vulcan rocket. But then, suddenly, something went wrong with this Centaur upper stage, reports Ars Technica.
Shortly after the incident, to his credit, the chief executive of United Launch Alliance, Tory Bruno, was quick to acknowledge on Twitter that something had happened: "Keeping you posted: During Qual testing of Centaur V structural article at MSFC, the hardware experienced an anomaly."

Unpacking this tweet a little bit, Bruno is saying that during qualification testing — the process of testing rocket engines and stages on the ground to determine their behavior during flight-like conditions — the Centaur stage had a problem. More than a week later, however, there are more questions than answers about the accident.

Blackarrow
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posted 04-09-2023 12:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The "problem" with the Centaur stage seems to have involved a powerful explosion (fortunately no injuries) and a mushroom cloud of burning hydrogen (which was photographed).

This use of "problem" might be the biggest space understatement since "Houston, we've had a problem."

Robert Pearlman
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posted 04-09-2023 12:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Not necessarily. As ULA's CEO Tory Bruno explained on Twitter:
Most of what you're seeing is insulation and smaller bits from the test rig. One piece of the hydrogen tank's dome, about a foot square, ended up a few feet away. The test article is still inside the rig and largely intact, which will significantly help with the investigation.

Blackarrow
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posted 04-09-2023 05:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Robert, I certainly acknowledge that a dynamic explosion doesn't necessarily spell disaster (remember the incident on SpaceX's SuperHeavy launchpad a few months ago) but the description of the Centaur test-article as "largely intact" is not encouraging.

The same "Ars Technica" report from which you quote goes on to quote a source as saying: "Their test article [a Centaur V stage for the Vulcan-Centaur] is more than just damaged."

Later, the same article refers to "the loss of the Centaur upper stage." I am not aware of the description "the loss" having been contradicted.

Personally, I believe strongly in competition and constructive rivalry to achieve multiple ways to launch spacecraft, so I very much regret this news. But the news does not look good. I would be happy to learn that things are not as bad as they appear.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 04-09-2023 06:28 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I didn't say, nor was I suggesting the stage was still usable. Bruno says as much ("It will be replaced.") but suggesting that the use of "problem" was an overstatement overlooks the nature of the test. Again from Bruno:
This case was an extreme limit case, but was also preceded by over a dozen other extreme cases, which is, obviously, not something that any given single tank would ever experience.
So a stage tested to its limits fails, albeit in an unexpected way. Is that a totally unexpected outcome? The "problem" seems to be more in the how and why it failed rather than the fact it failed at all.

Blackarrow
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posted 04-10-2023 06:23 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I think we're in fierce agreement here. Bruno has also referred to "extreme structural load testing of various worst possible conditions." However, I assume this wasn't a "test to destruction" because he referred to "an anomaly."

I agree that if a rocket stage is subjected to extreme testing, it should not be wholly unexpected if it explodes. I'm not a rocket-engineer and I may be way off beam here, but I can't help wondering why such extreme testing was being done within weeks of the planned maiden launch of Vulcan-Centaur. Is that normal? Should such tests not have been completed months or years ago? I thought it was problems with the BE-4 engine that had been delaying the rocket. Surely that provided plenty of time to do all the high-risk tests on the Centaur upper stage?

Jim Behling
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posted 04-11-2023 08:28 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jim Behling   Click Here to Email Jim Behling     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Blackarrow:
Is that normal?
Yes, it is normal. And, it could not be months or years ago since it is parallel development.

The Static Test Article is usually the first article built closely followed by the first flight article. The BE-4 had a larger umbrella and that is why you didn't hear about Centaur structural testing.

SkyMan1958
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posted 04-11-2023 05:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SkyMan1958   Click Here to Email SkyMan1958     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Even if the Centaur is a legacy stage, it is still tweaked to a new setting/arrangement. While I am sad about the explosion and potential for delay, let's face it, explosions with new rockets is not a surprise. Hopefully the engineers will figure out the issue and fix the problem.

Given that the Dream Chaser might be flying on the Vulcan/Centaur in the future, it is far better to have explosions on the ground on a test article than on a potentially crewed vehicle.

Blackarrow
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posted 04-13-2023 04:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Point taken, but it's an unfortunate look a few weeks before the planned date of the first launch.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 05-25-2023 09:03 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
ULA is preparing for the Flight Readiness Firing (FRF) today (May 25) of the Vulcan rocket as a validation of the fully integrated vehicle at Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Along with other planned testing today, the FRF will demonstrate day of launch timelines and procedures, propellant loading operations and the countdown through ignition of the twin booster BE-4 engines.

Prior to the FRF, the team performed an exhaustive review of the hardware, software and ground systems and completed a Flight Readiness Tanking Test (FTT) on Fri., May 12. The FRF is a functional test of the ground systems, software, first stage and engines.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 05-25-2023 03:30 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
ULA is standing down from the engine flight readiness testing today.
During the countdown, the team observed a delayed response from the booster engine ignition system that needs further review prior to proceeding with the flight readiness firing. We will be rolling the rocket back to the Vertical Integration Facility to gain access to the booster ignition system. The team will continue to review data and determine when Vulcan can roll back to the pad to conduct the flight readiness firing.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 06-07-2023 11:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
ULA is again preparing for a Flight Readiness Firing (FRF) of its Vulcan rocket.

A live broadcast of the test from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida is scheduled to begin today (June 7) at 6:45 p.m. EDT (2045 GMT).

Robert Pearlman
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posted 06-07-2023 08:46 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
From ULA CEO Tory Bruno (via Twitter), after the flight readiness firing:
Nominal run!
From Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos in reply:
Nothing sweeter in rocketry than the word nominal. Congrats to you, Tory, and the whole team!

Robert Pearlman
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posted 06-13-2023 08:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
ULA CEO Tory Bruno says (via Twitter) that the root cause of the Centaur upper stage test failure has been identified.
The super thin, high performance steel skin needs to be a little thicker near the top of the dome.
He added that ULA is now working on identifying the steps forward to launch.

Robert Pearlman
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posted 06-24-2023 08:06 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Status update from ULA:
The team completed the data review following the recent Flight Readiness Firing and all test objectives were successfully achieved.

In parallel, we have determined the root cause and corrective action for the Centaur V structural test stand anomaly at Marshall Space Flight Center on March 29. Centaur’s thin-walled pressure stabilized tanks require minor reinforcement at the top of the forward dome prior to flight. We plan to de-stack the Vulcan rocket and return the Centaur V to Decatur for modifications.

The booster is healthy and ready to support the first launch and will be stored horizontally in the Horizontal Integration Facility until we are ready to resume mission processing. ULA has several Centaur V flight articles in production in Decatur and one will be identified as the test article to complete qualification testing.

SpaceAngel
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posted 01-08-2024 09:25 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAngel   Click Here to Email SpaceAngel     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Will Vulcan be eventually used for Boeing's Starliner; i.e. after the Atlas V is retired?

Robert Pearlman
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posted 01-08-2024 09:36 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
At present, ULA has reserved enough Atlas V rockets to launch all of the NASA contracted flights of the Starliner. Boeing has said it has not yet made a decision as to its future launch vehicle, should the need for one arise.

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