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Vulcan Centaur rocket 'go' for historic Jan. 8 moon launch
- jameshart 3y agoThis is an actual paragraph from a real news story, not some sort of backstory from an alt history sci fi RPG: > United Launch Alliance (ULA)'s Vulcan Centaur rocket is now officially scheduled to launch the robotic Peregrine lunar lander from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
- anovikov 3y agoI know the Vulcan Centaur is probably going to be quite an un-impactful rocket given what SpaceX is doing (while the upper stage is sort of surprisingly capable!), it's still remarkable with how little fuss and apparent lack of difficulty it was developed, being all-new with no components reused except the RL-10 upper stage engine (which is of new version, too). Seems like the curse of ever increasing complexity, cost, and development timeline for each new subsequent rocket family has finally been broken across the industry, not just by SpaceX.
- hcrisp 3y agoImage on Vulcan's homepage says 90% was flown before first launch. Or is that just marketing? https://www.flickr.com/photos/ulalaunch/32854051607/in/album-72157700232931891/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/ulalaunch/32854051607/in/album...
- anovikov 3y agoAnyone knows Vulcan's Centaur stage dry mass? I think it escaped attention of too many people. The new Centaur is much bigger and holds almost 3 times the fuel of original one as used on say, Atlas V. That an upper stage of a totally different scale. I also believe that it's mass ratio should be absurdly high, can't wait to find out, for some reason it's not published. Essentially, it stands right in the middle between 5-meter DCCS/ICPS (biggest hydrolox upper stage operational now), and EUS which seems to be an awfully long-delayed, extremely expensive blue elephant which might as well be cancelled before it's first flight.