Photo by TJ Waller / Florida Media Now
United Launch Alliance moved its new Vulcan rocket to the launch pad at SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force station this afternoon. Vulcan will make its maiden launch at 2:18 am EST Monday January 8. The latest forecasts call for an 85% chance of acceptable launch conditions weather-wise, leaving only a 15% Probability of Violation of weather criteria. That forecast will likely be updated by the 45th Weather Wing of the US Space Force as soon as tomorrow and is subject to change.
Vulcan will carry the Astrobiotics Peregrine lunar lander, the Celestis Enterprise memorial flight, and other payloads to space. Peregrine will aim for the Sinus Viscositatis, or Bay of Stickiness, named after the long-ago silica magma that formed the nearby Gruithuisen Domes. The Celestis payload will end up in solar orbit after it is deployed.
Video: Richard Gallagher, Florida Media Now
New Technologies Power Vulcan
The Vulcan launch will feature several novel technologies, primarily two Blue Origin BE-4 core engines that utilize liquid methane and liquid oxygen (methalox) as their core propellants. No American company has successfully orbited a methalox rocket, despite at least three other attempts: Relativity’s Terran 1 and SpaceX’s two Starship test flights all failed on ascent. Chinese company LandSpace successfully orbited the payload with its Zuque-2 rocket in July 2023. The Relativity and SpaceX attempts were test flights, with no customer payloads aboard, while Vulcan will have at least two customers with assets on the first flight of Vulcan.
Launch Time
2:18am. Set your alarm clocks. Before that, the rocket must be prepped, fueled, and tested to ensure everything is working before liftoff. You can follow launch preparations online at ULA’s website or on their YouTube feed when they go live.
Should the launch be delayed, backup opportunities with limited launch windows are available in the early hours of Tuesday through Thursday. If Vulcan does not launch by then, January 23, 2024 is the next available opportunity.
Photo by: TJ Waller | Florida Media Now
Watching The Launch
The launch can be streamed on ULA YouTube channel here:
Jan. 8 LIVE Broadcast: Vulcan Cert-1
Floridians will be able to see the rocket’s ascent either in person in Titusville or Cape Canaveral, or in other parts of the state, weather permitting:
