United Launch Alliance fired a next-generation Vulcan rocket on Friday in the second of two “certification” test flights needed before the new launcher can be used to carry high-priority national security payloads for the US Space Force. USA and the National Reconnaissance Office.
One of the two solid-propellant boosters provided by Northrop Grumman suffered an anomaly of some kind during ascent out of the lower atmosphere, but the Vulcan managed to remain in orbit. It's not yet known what impact the issue could have on Vulcan's certification, but ULA CEO Tory Bruno said it will be investigated.
“The trajectory was nominal throughout,” he said on the company's launch webcast. “However, we did have an observation on SRB No. 1, so we will be observing it once the mission is completed.” No other details were provided.
The Vulcan's two Blue Origin-built BE-4 engines and twin solid rocket boosters, or SRBs, roared to life at 7:25 a.m. EDT, shattering the morning calm with the crackling roar of 2 million pounds of thrust .
The 202-foot-tall, 1.5 million-pound rocket, adorned in a red and white livery, ascended skyward from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, rapidly accelerating out of the dense lower atmosphere on an eastward trajectory.
The apparent booster anomaly could be seen on long-range tracking camera views when a shower of sparks and what appeared to be debris fell from the right-side SRB 37 seconds after takeoff. The problem appeared to originate at or near the nozzle at the base of the booster. The exhaust plume changed shape drastically, but the Vulcan was able to continue its ascent into space.
Anomaly aside, the strap-on thrusters burned out and were jettisoned about 20 seconds later than planned. The methane-burning BE-4s, each generating 550,000 pounds of thrust, continued to propel the rocket out of the lower atmosphere for another three minutes or so before shutting down.
The non-reusable stage then fell off to crash into the Atlantic and flight continued under power from the two Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10C engines from Centaur 5's upper stage.
The upper stage fired its engines for a second time after reaching orbit to demonstrate its ability to restart in space, a key requirement for military payloads that require complex “high energy” trajectories to reach their operational orbits.
Vulcan's inaugural launch on January 8 went off without a hitch, successfully sending a commercially built lunar lander on its way. For its second flight, ULA initially planned to launch a winged cargo ship from Sierra Space, Dream Chaser, on its maiden flight, but the spacecraft could not be delivered on time.
Instead, ULA placed a dummy payload atop the Vulcan, the so-called “mass simulator,” added some technology demonstration experiments to help enable long-duration flights, and installed additional instrumentation to record as much data as possible. during the 54-minute demonstration. .
The “cert 2” mission “literally has one main objective, which is to fly a second time and have another success,” Bruno said before the launch. Assuming a review of the flight data confirms good performance, he added, “then you're ready to fly national security payloads.”
It is not yet known how the solid propellant issue could influence that data review and the rocket's eventual certification.
But two such missions are planned later this year, which Bruno described as “urgent.” While he did not mention any potential Space Force or NRO payloads, national security missions typically launch satellites capable of optical and radar imaging, electronic eavesdropping, encrypted communications relay, and other top-secret payloads.
Because the Vulcan was not carrying an active payload for its second flight, ULA added “more instrumentation that we can use just to characterize a vehicle,” Bruno said.
“We're putting in all kinds of other instruments just to help us better understand how the rocket works as we go. So that's the mission, a second flight to obtain certification and then some technological experiments of our own.”
ULA executives describe the Vulcan as “the future of our company.” It is replacing the Delta 4 family of rockets, which have since been retired, and the venerable Atlas line that dates back to the early days of the American space program.
The ULA still has 15 Atlas 5 rockets in its inventory. Eight will be used to launch Amazon Kuiper Internet relay satellites, six are reserved to launch Boeing's Starliner crew shuttle to the International Space Station and one is intended to launch a Viasat communications satellite into orbit.
Once those missions are carried out in the coming years, the Vulcan will be the company's only launcher.
“The system that we have developed is really positioning us for a very bright and prosperous future for many, many years to come,” said Mark Peller, ULA's vice president of Vulcan development, before the rocket's maiden flight. “It has proven to be an extremely competitive product in the market, with an order book of more than 70 missions before first flight.”
Unlike the Atlas 5, which uses Russian-made RD-180 engines to power the rocket's first stage, the all-American-powered Vulcan relies on two BE-4 first-stage engines built by Blue Origin, the space company owned by by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. .
On takeoff, the twin BE-4s generate a combined thrust of 1.1 million pounds. The two strap-on solid propellant thrusters generate another 919,200 pounds of thrust, providing a total thrust of just over 2 million pounds. The Vulcan can be launched with up to six tethers depending on mission requirements.
The hydrogen-fueled Centaur 5 upper stage engines generate 23,825 pounds of thrust, enabling the launch of heavy military payloads to so-called high-energy orbits that cannot be easily reached by rockets optimized for low-Earth orbit.
Bruno did not disclose the cost of a Vulcan rocket, other than to say it was less than $100 million, making it competitive with SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
“Next after this mission will be a couple of missions for the Space Force,” Bruno said. “We hope they will be ready to go this year, hence the urgency and not being able to wait any longer for the Dream Chaser.”
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