United Launch Alliance has presented its next-generation launch vehicle which it claims will be the “highest-performing, most cost-efficient rocket on the market”, featuring a reusable first stage.
Vulcan, as it will be known, is being designed to…
United Launch Alliance has presented its next-generation launch vehicle which it claims will be the “highest-performing, most cost-efficient rocket on the market”, featuring a reusable first stage.
Vulcan, as it will be known, is being designed to replace ULA’s Atlas workhorse and will be a direct competitor to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which has brought down launch costs considerably.
The first version of the new rocket will be available in 2019, with a more powerful version to follow in 2023.
Unlike Atlas, Vulcan will be powered by a US-made engine as opposed to a Russian one. Blue Origin, the private venture owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will supply the BE-4 engine, which will be fuelled with low-cost liquid natural gas and designed for reuse.
ULA, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, hopes to eventually be able to recover the BE-4 and the rest of the first stage via mid-air capture. In practice, this will see an inflatable shield deployed around the engines when they fall back to Earth to protect them from burning up. A parachute will later open and this will slow the engines’ descent sufficiently for a helicopter to recover them.
Rocket reusability is seen as key to significantly reducing launch costs and improving the sustainability of the industry.
A second attempt by SpaceX to land a reusable version of Falcon 9 on a drone ship failed on Tuesday, when it toppled over shortly after appearing to be close to touching down. The company said it had successfully sent its Dragon capsule to resupply the International Space Station before the failed landing.
For ULA, the first step is to bring the workhorse version of Vulcan to market. The 2019 version will use the BE-4 for its first stage and, like Atlas, Centaur for its second stage. It will be able to carry either a four-metre or five-metre diameter payload, and the lift-off power for this can be augmented by up to four solid rocket boosters for the four metre version, and six for the five metre version.
ULA hopes to be able to replace Centaur by 2023 with the more powerful Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage, which will give Vulcan the capability of today’s Delta IV Heavy rocket. The ACES system will be able to execute almost unlimited burns and dramatically extend operating times.
The joint venture, which currently provides 70% of US launches, said: “The NGLS brings together decades of experience on ULA’s reliable Atlas and Delta vehicles, combining the best features of each to produce an all-new, American-made rocket that will enable mission success from low Earth orbit all the way to Pluto.”
The system was given the name Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and a fictional race in Star Trek, by the general public in an online poll.
