The Vulcan rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA), the joint venture between Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA, ETR:BCO), is scheduled for its much-delayed blastoff next Monday.
If the launch is a success it could be significant for some of the world's richest men, providing some potential competition to the near-monopoly on orbital launches for Elon Musk's SpaceX and with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos'a Blue Origin reported to be one of three parties to have made bids for ULA.
Vulcan's maiden launch slipped several times in 2021 and had last been pencilled in for a May lift-off last year.
Standing at just under 62 meters or 202 feet tall, the Vulcan rocket and Centaur 5 upper stage vehicle's primary mission is to carry the Peregrine lander into orbit on the way to the Moon for customer Astrobotic.
Astrobotic's mission, part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, aims for its lunar lander to attempt a touch-down on 23 February, which would make it the first private mission to successfully touch down on the Moon (after the last efforts failed at the final stage).
The Centaur module will also contain the 'Enterprise' payload of 265 cremated remains of a number of US presidents, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, the actors who played Lt Uhura and Scotty in the series and other notables, which will fly on to maintain a hyperbolic orbit around the Sun on behalf of Celestis Memorial Spaceflight.
Billionaires in the background
Blue Origin, which provided Vulcan's twin engines (eventually), is reported to have made a multibillion-dollar bid for ULA last month, with the formerly dominant NASA launch provider having fallen far behind SpaceX in winning government and commercial contracts.
It was reported over a month ago that Lockheed and Boeing are close to picking the buyer for the joint venture.
With Vulcan Centaur designed to be a cheaper-per-flight replacement for ULA's existing Atlas V workhorse rocket and Delta IV Heavy, it is seen as extremely important for the burgeoning space industry in order to avoid relying mainly on SpaceX, despite the huge reduction in launch costs that Musk's company has already provided from its reusable rockets.
“SpaceX likes to say they have a monopoly” in launches, ULA chief executive Tory Bruno told Bloomberg in an October interview. “They don’t.”
However, the California rocket company has been soaring far above the competition.
If Vulcan flies true, it could enable ULA to achieve a packed launch schedule in the coming years, including 11 Space Force launches, though it has possibly been hampered by its joint ownership structure and maybe a lack of funding compared to SpaceX and Blue Origin, media reports suggested.
A new owner, especially one that is also adept at winning NASA contracts, could provide the capital to allow ULA to provide the competition for SpaceX the wider industry craves, as well as potentially carrying a pair of historic payloads into space.