Launch

Vulcan Centaur Successfully Completes Its Maiden Flight

Published on 08 January 2024

United Launch Alliance's (ULA) new Vulcan Centaur launcher successfully completed its first mission, taking off from Florida on January 8. Its main stage is powered by BE-4 engines supplied by Blue Origin, a company founded by Jeff Bezos.

Initiated in 2014, the Vulcan Centaur was designed by the private American firm United Launch Alliance (ULA) to succeed its launchers Delta IV and Atlas V. These were no longer suited to the market in terms of price and, moreover, the Atlas V uses Russian RD-180 engines for its first stage. This dependence was already posing problems after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014.

A SUCCESS FOR ULA AND BLUE ORIGIN

With the Vulcan Centaur, ULA returned to a completely American solution, a barely concealed request from the United States Defense Department, a regular customer of this company formed as an alliance between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
For the propulsion of the main stage, ULA took the gamble of sourcing from a new US space player, the firm Blue Origin, created in 2000 by billionaire Jeff Bezos who owes his fortune to the online sales giant Amazon. Vulcan Centaur is in fact equipped with two BE-4 engines (for Blue Engine No. 4) which consume methane and liquid oxygen. Side boosters help with take-off while the upper stage is of the Centaur type, heir to a long lineage dating back to the 1950s.

CERT-1 FOR CERTIFICATION No. 1

For the first time on January 8 at 2:18 a.m., local Florida time, Vulcan Centaur tore away from the SLC-41 launch pad of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and sent the small private lander Peregrine towards the Moon (see below). The CERT-1 (for Certification # 1) success of this flight is obviously important for ULA which thus remains an active competitor on the launch market to SpaceX . It’s also a significant success for Blue Origin which provided a crucial element with its BE-4 engines, the development of which was financed internally. Note that Blue Origin will enter into competition with its client ULA soon by putting into service its own New Glenn launcher which will also use BE-4s!

First take-off of the Vulcan Centaur on January 8 at 2:18 a.m. Florida local time.
© ULA

Peregrine is a private automatic lander from the Astrobotic company. They are considering a larger machine, the Griffin (bottom left), to meet NASA’s requirements for heavier payloads. Griffin is to be used to land the American agency’s VIPER rover on the Moon.
© Cité de l’espace after Astrobotic

DIFFICULTIES FOR PEREGRINE

For this CERT-1 mission, the Vulcan Centaur had to send the private Peregrine lander towards the Moon, which was carried out as expected when the craft detached from the Centaur stage, 1 hour and 32 minutes after take-off.
Peregrine aimed to arrive on the Moon on February 23, taking NASA experiments ($79.5 million paid for the service), other scientific instruments and various commercial payloads (including the ashes of deceased people). However, the company Astrobotic indicated that Peregrine had experienced an anomaly in its propulsion system which prevented correct orientation of the solar panels. The ground teams reacted and managed to send instructions so that the lander compensated for the error and the batteries on board could recharge. Shortly after 6 p.m. French time, Astrobotic announced that the loss of fuel caused by the propulsion malfunction forced them to consider an alternative mission scenario, most likely without a moon landing (the lander finally ended its flight above Earth).
Peregrine Mission One was the first mission taking place as part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) programme, intended to entrust cargo services to the Moon to the private sector.

CELESTIS ORBITING THE SUN

ULA ‘s other customer for CERT -1 is the Celestis company whose payload was attached to the Centaur stage and is now following a stable orbit around the Sun. In this way, Celestis disposed of the ashes of several deceased people. Some are famous for having featured in the SF series Star Trek.

After this smooth maiden flight, ULA is aiming for CERT-2 for its Vulcan Centaur (no date announced). Further success will qualify the launcher for the US military payload market.