{"id":16392,"date":"2015-04-16T21:30:13","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T13:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/certification-process-begins-for-vulcan-to-carry-military-payloads\/"},"modified":"2015-04-16T21:30:13","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T13:30:13","slug":"certification-process-begins-for-vulcan-to-carry-military-payloads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/certification-process-begins-for-vulcan-to-carry-military-payloads\/","title":{"rendered":"Certification process begins for Vulcan to carry military payloads"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Delta
Delta 4-Heavy (left) and the new Vulcan rocket (right). Credit: ULA
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 The heavy-lift version of the United Launch Alliance\u2019s new Vulcan rocket will sell for half the price of today\u2019s Delta 4-Heavy and a third of the price tag for the previous Titan 4, while offering a substantial increase in performance for the nation\u2019s largest defense spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell below $200 million. Value is unlimited on-orbit operations,\u201d George Sowers, ULA\u2019s vice president of strategic architecture and advanced programs, told a reddit.com chat Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Delta 4-Heavy has flown eight times, most recently with NASA\u2019s Orion capsule last December. But the bread and butter for the launcher is classified National Reconnaissance Office payloads \u2014 massive eavesdropping platforms placed directly into geosynchronous orbit and optical spy satellites launched from the West Coast.<\/p>\n

ULA boss Tory Bruno announced the company plans to retire the medium-class, single-core Delta 4-Medium and -Medium+ configurations in 2019. The Delta 4-Heavy will live on as long as the Air Force and NRO need it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have personally communicated to the Air Force and NRO that we will keep the Delta 4-Heavy available until they are able to gracefully transition to the Vulcan. I expect that to be out in the 2023-24 timeframe. But it\u2019ll be up to them,\u201d Bruno says.<\/p>\n

By that time, the new Vulcan rocket\u2019s first stage will be four-to-five years old and certified by the Air Force to launch the country\u2019s security spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we\u2019ve already started. You begin the certification process by writing a letter to the Air Force and telling them \u2018I\u2019m going to have a new rocket,’\u201d Bruno said of certification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundamental difference in our approach to certification is we intend to continue our policy of transparency with the government. We\u2019ve invited them now, literally when we first began this path, to engage with us, to attend design reviews, to participate and have that visibility as we move through the development process.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of having finished all our work without letting the government participate and backing up the semi-truck and dumping all the qual testing on \u2019em and all the drawings and all the processes and plans, we\u2019re going to bring them along all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certification will allow the initial Vulcan configurations to launch Air Force and NRO satellites in the medium-class market. The Vulcan\u2019s new first stage will be outfitted with a Blue Origin BE-4 main engine and up to six solid-propellant boosters for added lift. The existing Centaur will be the upper stage.<\/p>\n

Step No. 2 in the development process of the new rocket will introduce the new Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage, or ACES, to the Vulcan first stage in 2023. It will increase performance to Delta 4-Heavy levels and beyond. A subsequent certification of the new upper stage will be required, too.<\/p>\n

The third development step will bring reusability in the form of mid-air recovery of the discarded main engines. The powerplants will be brought back to land, refurbished, certified for reflight and plugged into the next booster in the factory, Bruno said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the business case closes for full-stage re-use,\u201d Sowers told his reddit.com audience.\u201dI don\u2019t think the business case closes for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

ULA officials are confident they can compete in the marketplace with the reduced costs of Vulcan, which has an entry-level price of $100 million before reusability kicks in. And the ACES and Integrated Vehicle Fluid engine aboard the new upper stage will allow it to operate for weeks instead of mere hours for value added capabilities.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll all be accomplished using single-core Vulcans, unlike the triple-barreled Delta 4-Heavy. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes. LEO to Pluto with a single stick,\u201d Sowers said.
\n
\nSee our earlier Vulcan coverage.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delta 4-Heavy (left) and the new Vulcan rocket (right). Credit: ULA CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 The heavy-lift version of the United Launch Alliance\u2019s new Vulcan rocket will sell for half the price of today\u2019s Delta 4-Heavy and a third of the price tag for the previous Titan 4, while offering a substantial increase in performance for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1695,1408,4087,2636,4088,750,3081,364],"class_list":["post-16392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cape-canaveral","tag-delta-4-heavy","tag-george-sowers","tag-ngls","tag-titan-4","tag-united-launch-alliance","tag-vandenberg-air-force-base","tag-vulcan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}