Title: United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur Rocket Launch Faces Brief Delay
United Launch Alliance (ULA) has announced that the highly anticipated first launch of the Vulcan Centaur rocket is likely to be delayed until early January. The delay is necessary to allow ULA to successfully complete a full dress rehearsal known as a wet dress rehearsal (WDR), which was recently unsuccessful due to routine issues with ground equipment.
Tory Bruno, the CEO of ULA, emphasized the importance of conducting a full WDR before the maiden flight, indicating that a Christmas Eve launch, initially planned for December 24, is highly unlikely. The launch windows on December 25 and 26 have also been affected by the delay.
The upcoming launch opportunity is now expected to be in early January, with a launch period opening on January 8. Sources suggest that the launch window is likely to span four days, with overnight hours being favored for the launch. However, due to the lack of updates from ULA during the test and afterwards, speculation about a potential delay emerged.
Interestingly, Astrobotic, the company responsible for the Peregrine lunar lander, had already started sharing social media posts about the payloads on December 10, assuming the launch would proceed as scheduled. It is worth noting that ULA had not reported any issues with their launch preparations before the WDR and was actually ahead of schedule.
John Thornton, the CEO of Astrobotic, acknowledged the inherent risks associated with launching on a new rocket but expressed confidence in ULA’s track record of success. The revised launch schedule could potentially result in two lunar lander launches from Cape Canaveral within the same week, as Intuitive Machines prepares for a January 12 launch of its Nova-C lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
While the delay may be disappointing to space enthusiasts eagerly awaiting the launch of the Vulcan Centaur rocket, ULA’s commitment to ensuring a thorough and successful test demonstrates their dedication to safety and mission success. As ULA fine-tunes their preparations, anticipation continues to build for this significant milestone in the realm of space exploration.
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