According to ULA CEO Tory Bruno, ULA intends to livestream the Vulcan flight readiness firing.Īt SLC-41, cryogenic propellant loading operations began on both the #VulcanRocket booster stage and Centaur V upper stage. The first attempt in early June was aborted, as an issue with the igniters on the BE-4’s required a rollback, before heading back to SLC-41 on June 7.ĭuring the Space Shuttle program, flight readiness firings were carried out before the maiden flight of each of the orbiters. This was the first time that two BE-4 engines were fired at the same time and while integrated with a launch vehicle. STATIC FIRE! Vulcan conducts its first ignition of its BE-4 engines during the Flight Readiness Firing (Cert-1). Component and subsystem tests were also being performed on the vehicle.ĬEO Tory Bruno noted the successful completion of the tanking tests, with ULA is aiming to perform the flight readiness firing of Vulcan’s twin Blue Origin BE-4 engines. Activities include cryogenic propellant loading operations on both the Vulcan first stage and the Centaur V second stage, which is meant to simulate launch day operations in the countdown prior to BE-4 engine ignition. Teams at Cape Canaveral are put Vulcan-Centaur through a final launch day dress rehearsal. The final flight of Delta IV Heavy and any Delta rocket, NROL-70, is scheduled to launch in 2024 from the same pad. The penultimate launch of Delta IV Heavy is scheduled to liftoff from Space Launch Complex 37B no earlier than the end of this month for the NROL-68 mission. Both spray-on foam insulation (SOFI) orange-colored Delta IV Heavy side core boosters remained on board ULA’s transport ship and will be offloaded at a later date. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF)Īs Vulcan was rolling out of the VIF, the center core and Delta Cryogenic Second Stage for the final Delta IV Heavy mission was hauled off of ULA’s Rocketship from the dock in Port Canaveral. The Delta IV Heavy center core for the NROL-70 mission rolls through Cape Canaveral on May 11. In addition to ULA using SLC-41 for Vulcan in Florida, the company is in the process of converting their west coast Atlas V pad, SLC-3 for Vulcan operations out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Once at the pad, the mobile launch platform was integrated with the existing pad infrastructure. By midday, Vulcan arrived at the launch pad, which has been modified to launch both Atlas V and Vulcan. Ahead of ULA launches from SLC-41, Atlas V and Vulcan rockets are stacked vertically inside the VIF atop mobile launch platforms. ULA began the morning on May 11 with the rollout of the upcoming Vulcan rocket from the vertical integration facility (VIF), which is located inside the perimeter of SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Vulcan is designed to replace both Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy, which are currently being phased out. These events come as ULA enters the home stretch in its preparations for the inaugural launch of its Vulcan-Centaur launch vehicle. This was followed by Flight Readiness Firing (FRF) testing that initially required a rollback before attempting again on June 7, successfully. Action finally returned to the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) as the Vulcan-Centaur rocket rolled out to the pad on May 11 for further testing ahead of its debut flight.
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