{"id":44830,"date":"2024-09-25T20:46:54","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T12:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-is-ready-to-start-buying-vulcan-rockets-from-united-launch-alliance\/"},"modified":"2024-09-25T20:46:54","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T12:46:54","slug":"nasa-is-ready-to-start-buying-vulcan-rockets-from-united-launch-alliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-is-ready-to-start-buying-vulcan-rockets-from-united-launch-alliance\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA is ready to start buying Vulcan rockets from United Launch Alliance"},"content":{"rendered":"

United Launch Alliance is free to compete for NASA contracts with its new Vulcan rocket after a successful test flight earlier this year, ending a period where SpaceX was the only company competing for rights to launch the agency\u2019s large science missions.<\/p>\n

For several years, ULA was unable to bid for NASA launch contracts after the company sold all of its remaining Atlas V rockets to other customers, primarily for Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper Internet network. ULA could not submit its new Vulcan rocket, which will replace the Atlas V, for NASA to consider in future launch contracts until the Vulcan completed at least one successful flight, according to Tim Dunn, senior launch director at NASA\u2019s Launch Services Program.<\/p>\n

The Vulcan rocket\u2019s first certification flight on January 8, called Cert-1, was nearly flawless, demonstrating the launcher\u2019s methane-fueled BE-4 engines built by Blue Origin and an uprated twin-engine Centaur upper stage. A second test flight, known as Cert-2, is scheduled to lift off no earlier than October 4 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Assuming the upcoming launch is as successful as the first one, the US Space Force aims to launch its first mission on a Vulcan rocket by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

The Space Force has already booked 25 launches on ULA\u2019s Vulcan rocket for military payloads and spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office. But these missions won\u2019t launch until Vulcan completes its second test flight, clearing the way for the Space Force to certify ULA\u2019s new rocket for national security missions.<\/p>\n

Back in the game<\/h2>\n

NASA\u2019s Launch Services Program (LSP) is responsible for selecting and overseeing launch providers for the agency\u2019s robotic science missions. NASA\u2019s near-term options for launching large missions include SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, ULA\u2019s Vulcan, and Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn launcher.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

However, only SpaceX\u2019s rockets have been available for NASA bids since 2021, when ULA sold all of its remaining Atlas V rockets to Amazon. For example, ULA did not submit proposals for the launch of a GOES weather satellite or NASA\u2019s Roman Space Telescope, two of the more lucrative launch contracts the agency has awarded in the last couple of years. NASA selected SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy, the only eligible rocket, for both missions.<\/p>\n

This is a notable role reversal for SpaceX and ULA, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that was the sole launch provider for large NASA science missions and military satellites for nearly a decade. SpaceX launched its first mission for NASA\u2019s Launch Services Program in January 2016.<\/p>\n

The situation changed with the first flight of the Vulcan rocket in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey certainly demonstrated a huge success earlier this year flying Cert-1,\u201d Dunn told Ars in an interview. \u201cThey needed a successful flight to then bid for future missions, so that allowed them to be in a position to bid on our missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA has not yet formally certified the Vulcan rocket to launch one of the agency\u2019s science missions, but that would not stop NASA from selecting Vulcan for a contract. Some of NASA\u2019s next big science missions up for launch contract awards include the nuclear-powered Dragonfly mission to explore Saturn\u2019s moon Titan and an asteroid-hunting telescope named NEO Surveyor.<\/p>\n

The second Vulcan flight next month will move ULA\u2019s rocket toward certification by the Space Force and NASA.<\/p>\n

\u201cA second Cert flight that will then demonstrate a few other capabilities of the rocket allows more data for our certification team that is working in concert with the US Space Force\u2019s certification team,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a lot of shared, intergovernmental collaborations in the certification work, so it allows us all more data, more confidence in that launch vehicle to meet all the needs that we believe we will have in the coming decade-plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Two strap-on solid-fueled boosters and twin BE-4 main engines on ULA\u2019s second Vulcan rocket.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n United Launch Alliance<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn could also compete for contracts to launch NASA\u2019s larger, more expensive missions after it completes at least one successful flight. Blue Origin is currently eligible for bids to launch NASA\u2019s smaller missions, such as the ESCAPADE mission to Mars already assigned to New Glenn. NASA is willing to accept more risk for launching these types of lower-cost missions.<\/p>\n

ULA capped off the assembly of its second Vulcan rocket at Cape Canaveral on Saturday when technicians lifted the launcher\u2019s payload fairing atop Vulcan\u2019s first-stage booster and Centaur upper stage. For its second launch, Vulcan will carry a dummy payload instead of a real satellite. The second Vulcan flight was initially supposed to launch Sierra Space\u2019s first Dream Chaser spaceplane to the International Space Station, but Dream Chaser isn\u2019t ready, and the Space Force is eager for ULA to get moving and finish the certification process.<\/p>\n

The head of Space Systems Command, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, told Ars last week that he is \u201coptimistic\u201d ULA will be in a position to launch its first Space Force missions with the Vulcan rocket by the end of this year. ULA has already delivered Vulcan rocket parts for the next two missions to Cape Canaveral, but the Cert-2 launch needs to go off without a hitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working very closely with ULA on that, as well as the manifest for the following missions,\u201d Garrant said. \u201cAll of the rocket parts are at the launch locations, ready to go, but clearly the priority is the certification flight and making sure that the launch vehicle is certified. But we are optimistic that we\u2019re going to get those launches off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United Launch Alliance is free to compete for NASA contracts with its new Vulcan rocket after a successful test flight earlier this year, ending a period where SpaceX was the only company competing for rights to launch the agency\u2019s large science missions. For several years, ULA was unable to bid for NASA launch contracts after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44832,"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":[25,257,190,750,2118,364],"class_list":["post-44830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-launch","tag-military-space","tag-nasa","tag-united-launch-alliance","tag-us-space-force","tag-vulcan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44830"}],"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=44830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}