Vulcan

Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander will be launched on a Vulcan Centaur rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

United Launch Alliance selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine in September 2018 rather than Aerojet Rocketdyne’s AR1 to power the first stage of its Vulcan rocket.

Astrobotic will launch its Peregrine lander on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket as a payload on the first Vulcan Centaur launch in 2021.

United Launch Alliance plans the first flight of the Vulcan rocket in April 2021.

RUAG USA is producing the 5.4-meter autoclave composite fairing in a facility located within the ULA Decatur factory and has moved all production of composite structures it builds for Atlas and Vulcan to Decatur.

United Launch Alliance is building the Vulcan class of space launch vehicles at the factory Boeing opened in Decatur, Alabama in 1998 to make Delta rockets.

Astrobotic selected United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket to launch its Peregrine lunar lander to the Moon in 2021.

Blue Origin’s BE-4 main engine, which runs on liquid oxygen and liquid methane, has been in development since 2011 and will be tested on the ground prior to Vulcan’s first launch.

Both Vulcan upper stage test articles will be tested at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville in the first half of 2020.

The Air Force will not be able to fly satellites on the Russian-engine-powered Atlas beyond 2022, motivating ULA to design Vulcan with a domestically produced engine.

Sierra Nevada Corporation selected Vulcan to launch six Dream Chaser missions to the ISS under its Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract awarded by NASA in 2016.

Sierra Nevada Corporation selected United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan launch vehicle to send Dream Chaser cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station starting in late 2021.

United Launch Alliance and Sierra Nevada Corporation included an option to shift Dream Chaser launches to Atlas V if Vulcan experiences delays.

The Vulcan configuration selected for Dream Chaser will allow the spacecraft to deliver more than 5,400 kg of cargo to the International Space Station.

Dream Chaser will be the commercial debut payload for ULA’s Vulcan, with the first Dream Chaser mission in late 2021 planned to fly on Vulcan’s second flight.

United Launch Alliance would be permitted to offer Atlas 5 or Delta 4 Heavy as a secondary launch vehicle if Vulcan is not ready for launches ordered before 2021-09-30.

United Launch Alliance selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine over the AR1 for the Vulcan launch vehicle in September 2018.

United Launch Alliance is developing the Vulcan Centaur rocket powered by Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine.