Meet the Vulcan: ULA's new rocket system

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Colorado-based United Launch Alliance (ULA) has unveiled a new rocket system that it claims will be more affordable and accessible than currently available space-travel options and could be used for missions travelling all the way to the dwarf planet Pluto.

ULA announced the new rocket, codenamed Vulcan, at the 31st Space Symposium in Colorado Springs on Monday. BBC News reports that it is currently scheduled to begin operations in 2019, and that it will eventually phase out the company’s current Atlas and Delta rockets.

Promising a game-changing rocket

The first element of the Vulcan rockets to be introduced will be a first-stage booster, which will feature an all-new, US-built liquid-fueled engine, according to the British news agency said. The plan is to incorporate a liquid methane-oxygen power unit currently being developed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his aerospace company, Blue Origin, into its design..

ULA, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is initially planning to used the new booster along with Centaur upper-stage currently used by the Atlas rocket, but in the early 2020s, this will be replaced with an all-new upper stage that the company hopes will create a rocket that can even surpass the Delta-VI Heavy, the most powerful rocket in the world today.

In a statement, ULA president and CEO Tory Bruno said that the Vulcan launch system “will be the highest-performing, most cost-efficient rocket on the market” and claimed that it would even create “new opportunities for the nation’s use of space. Whether it is scientific missions, medical advancements, national security or new economic opportunities for businesses, ULA’s new Vulcan rocket is a game-changer in terms of creating endless possibilities in space.”

More power at half the cost

The company is also claiming that the Vulcan would be significantly less expensive to build and operate than other rockets. Bruno told BBC News that a Delta-VI Heavy launch conducted today costs about $400 million, and that he expects Vulcan launches to cost half that amount.

Some of those savings will be made by recovering and reusing first-stage booster engines after a successful lift-off, the British media outlet said. Following separation from the upper-stage, the engines would unhook from the propellant tanks and fall back to the Earth surface. As they fall, they be protect themselves from burning upon on re-entry by deploying an inflatable shield.

Eventually, they would use a parachute to slow their descent, and before they made impact, a helicopter out intercept them in the air and return them safely to the ground. The engines would undergo maintenance, and once repairs are finished, they would be installed into a rocket.

“As the company currently responsible for more than 70 percent of the nation’s space launches, it is only fitting that America got to name the country’s rocket of the future,” Bruno said. “Our ability to deliver critical national security, scientific and commercial satellites into the correct orbit every time is filled with risks and challenges, and ULA has delivered every time. ULA’s reliability is and will continue to be part of the mission.”

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