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Tag: vulcan centaur

  • ‘Most Metal’ Rocket Famous for Setting Itself on Fire Will Make Its Final Launch

    ‘Most Metal’ Rocket Famous for Setting Itself on Fire Will Make Its Final Launch

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    As the band Europe once sang, it’s the final countdown, at least for United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy, which is set to retire following its final flight on Thursday, March 28. The classified mission also marks the end of an era that began more than 60 years ago, with ULA bidding farewell to the Delta series.

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    The triple core rocket is slated to launch at 1:40 p.m. ET on Thursday, blasting off from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The weather forecast isn’t great, with ULA predicting a 30% chance of favorable conditions. Should bad weather force a scrub, ground teams will try again 24 hours later. The Delta IV Heavy is carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, likely a spy satellite, as part of the NROL-70 mission.

    In its press materials, ULA described the Delta IV Heavy as the “most metal” of rockets. The reason for this has to do with the dramatic, and even startling, way in which the rocket blasts off. Seconds before its engines roar to life, a fireball engulfs the base of the rocket, causing a fire that chars the booster exterior.

    This has to do with excess hydrogen burn-off. Prior to ignition, hydrogen fuel creeps out from the engines and up the side of the booster (it’s like starting a gas cooktop or a propane barbecue—some gas has to escape before you click the ignition button). When the engines are ignited, this excess hydrogen catches fire, causing the brief—but intense—fireball. This phenomenon is actually a normal and expected part of the launch process. A 2018 video (below) describes the process in more detail.

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    This is the last flight for the 235-foot-tall (72-meter) Delta IV Heavy, which debuted in 2002. It’s also the end of the road for the Delta program. The NROL-70 mission marks the 16th launch of Delta IV Heavy and the 389th for the Delta family, according to AmericaSpace. Established by the U.S. government in 1960, the Delta program was set up to develop a suite of expendable launch vehicles for space missions, ranging from satellite deployments to deep space explorations. ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket, which debuted in January, is designed to replace the Deltas.

    The two-stage Delta IV Heavy consists of three booster cores, each powered by a RS-68A engine. Each of these engines produce 705,000 pounds of force at liftoff, making it one of the most powerful liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines in the world. For its second stage, the Delta IV Heavy uses a single RL10C-2-1 engine (also fueled by liquid hydrogen and oxygen), capable of generating 24,750 pounds of thrust. A 16-foot-tall (5-meter) payload fairing completes the assembly.

    The Delta IV Heavy’s first launch on December 21, 2004, was a partial failure (the dummy payload didn’t reach the targeted orbit), but it remains the only blemish in an otherwise perfect career. Its first successful operational mission was in 2007, sending an NRO reconnaissance satellite into space. Notable missions include launching NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the EFT-1 mission in 2014 (Orion is now a key fixture of the space agency’s Artemis program) and the Parker Solar Probe in 2018.

    Related article: What to know about ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket

    At the time of its debut, the Delta IV Heavy was the most powerful rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, save for the Saturn V and the Space Shuttle Launch System, according to Florida Today. Currently, only NASA’s Space Launch System and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy are more powerful (Starship doesn’t count, as it’s not yet ready for prime time). Its replacement, the 202-foot-tall (61.6-meter) Vulcan Centaur rocket, offers greater flexibility and can be configured with zero, two, four, or six solid rocket boosters to meet specific mission requirements.

    So it’s out with the old and in with the new. The Delta IV Heavy has done its bit for king and country, but now it’s time for an update—and an overdue one at that. Vulcan represents ULA’s first new rocket design since the company began in 2006 (ULA, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, inherited Delta from its predecessors). Sure, we’ll miss those frightening fireballs at launch, but the future awaits.

    For more spaceflight in your life, follow us on X and bookmark Gizmodo’s dedicated Spaceflight page.

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    George Dvorsky

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  • United Launch Alliance, Astrobotic ready for early Monday liftoff to the moon | TechCrunch

    United Launch Alliance, Astrobotic ready for early Monday liftoff to the moon | TechCrunch

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    The countdown to launch is on. United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket has been rolled to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ahead of its early Monday morning launch, a mission that could end with the first fully private spacecraft landing on the moon.

    Vulcan’s primary payload is Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander. If all goes to plan, Peregrine will embark on a journey to the moon over the span of around 1.5 months, before attempting to land on the surface on February 23. The two companies had been targeting a Christmas Eve launch, but ULA decided to postpone due to ground system issues.

    “If you’ve been following the lunar industry, you understand landing on the Moon’s surface is incredibly difficult,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said in a press release last month. “With that said, our team has continuously surpassed expectations and demonstrated incredible ingenuity during flight reviews, spacecraft testing, and major hardware integrations. We are ready for launch, and for landing.”

    ULA and Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic are not the only firms with much riding on Monday’s launch. This will also be the first time Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engines take flight on Vulcan’s first-stage booster (after years of delays), and the first mission as part of NASA’s program to kickstart payload delivery to the lunar surface.

    That program, Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), has collectively doled out hundreds of millions to spur private development of moon landers. For this mission, Astrobotic was awarded $79.5 million from NASA in 2019.

    The mission is slated to take off at 2:18 a.m. ET Monday. NASA will livestream the mission on its YouTube channel.

    The launch will be the first of many heading to the moon this year. Other lunar launches slated for 2024 include Intuitive Machines IM-1 lander, which is scheduled for liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in February; Japanese firm ispace’s second lunar mission (their first lander crashed into the lunar surface shortly before touchdown); and Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander in the third quarter of 2024. (Both Intuitive Machines’ and Firefly’s missions are part of the CLPS program.)

    With such a lineup, it’s highly likely that 2024 will be the year that a private company lands a spacecraft on the moon for the first time, and the first time an American entity has gone to the lunar surface since 1972.

    Astrobotic will attempt to land Peregrine near a region of the moon known as the Gruithuisen Domes, and it will be delivering a handful of NASA payloads and scientific instruments that will endeavor to better understand the lunar environment. Peregrine will also be delivering around 15 non-NASA payloads, including a rover from Carnegie Mellon University and a robotic project called Coleman from the Mexican Space Agency.

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    Aria Alamalhodaei

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