Launch of the Vulcan rocket, the first American moon launch in decades

A new rocket lifted off early Monday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida, sending a robotic spacecraft toward the moon's surface. No American spacecraft has made a soft landing on the moon since 1972.

For United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the successful launch of the Vulcan Centaur rocket was critical. Vulcan is designed to replace two aging rockets, and the U.S. Space Force also relies on it to launch spy satellites and other spacecraft that are important to U.S. national security.

Vulcan is also the first of several new rockets that could shake off Elon Musk's SpaceX's current dominance of the space launch market. SpaceX sent nearly 100 rockets into orbit last year. Other orbital launches in the coming months could include the Ariane 6 rocket from Arianespace, a European company, and New Glenn from Blue Origin, the company created by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.

Throughout the night, the Vulcan rocket countdown continued smoothly, and the weather cooperated.

At 2:18 a.m. ET, the rocket's engines ignited and it lifted off the launch pad, heading up and east over the Atlantic Ocean.

“Everything looks good,” Rob Gannon, a launch commentator at United Launch Alliance, said repeatedly as Vulcan headed into space.

“Hey Hao,” said Tory Bruno, the company's CEO, after the lunar rover's deployment. “I'm so happy. I can't tell you how much.”

Founded in 2006, United Launch Alliance was for seven years the only company approved by the U.S. government to send national security payloads into orbit. So far, it has used two vehicles: the Delta 4, developed by Boeing, which will complete its final flight later this year, and the Atlas 5, developed by Lockheed Martin, which is also scheduled to retire in a few years.

Seventeen Atlas 5 launches remain, but the rocket uses Russian-made engines, which have become politically untenable as tensions between Russia and the United States rise. That prompted ULA to begin developing the Vulcan rocket, which replaces the capabilities of both rockets at a lower cost, United Launch Alliance officials said.

“What is unique about Vulcan, and what we originally set out to do, is to provide a rocket that has all the capabilities of Atlas and Delta in one system,” said Mark Beeler, ULA's vice president in charge of Vulcan development. “Because we have this ability to modify, their configuration can be tailored to suit the specific mission.”

Vulcan can be configured in several ways. The primary booster stage, the main body of the rocket, is powered by two BE-4 engines manufactured by Blue Origin. The engines, which emit a deep blue flame from the combustion of methane fuel, will also be used in Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

Up to six solid rocket fuel boosters can be attached to the side of the core to increase the amount of mass it can lift into orbit. The nose cone comes in two dimensions – a standard 51-foot size, and a longer 70-foot size for larger payloads.

“The launch market is more robust than it has been in decades,” said Karissa Christensen, CEO of Bryce Tech, a consulting firm in Alexandria, Virginia. The projected demand will likely be enough to support many launch service providers, including Vulcan.

ULA already has more than 70 backlogged missions to fly on Vulcan. Amazon has purchased 38 launches to deploy for Project Kuiper, a constellation of communications satellites that will compete with SpaceX's Starlink network to provide high-speed satellite internet.

Many other launches will be for the Space Force. ULA and SpaceX are currently the only companies approved to launch national security missions. Monday's launch is the first of two demonstration missions required by the Space Force to gain confidence in Vulcan before it uses the launch pad for military and surveillance payloads.

The second launch will lift the Dream Chaser, an unmanned spaceplane built by Sierra Space in Louisville, Colorado, on a cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station. This could be followed by four additional Vulcan launches this year for the Space Force.

The main payload for Vulcan's first launch was Peregrine, a spacecraft built by Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh. Astrobotic, founded in 2007, is one of several private companies aiming to provide delivery to the moon's surface. Its primary client for this flight is NASA, which paid Astrobotic $108 million to conduct five experiments. This comes within the scientific work carried out by the space agency to prepare for the return of astronauts to the moon within the framework of the Artemis program.

Unlike in the past, when NASA built and operated its own spacecraft, this time it is relying on companies like Astrobotic to provide transportation.

A second burn of Vulcan's second stage engine that lasted about four minutes sent Peregrine on course for the Moon. “It's a dream,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said in a NASA television broadcast after the launch. “We're on our way to the moon.”

About 50 minutes after launch, the Astrobotic spacecraft separated from the rocket.

After a two-and-a-half-week cruise to the Moon, the Peregrine lander will enter lunar orbit and orbit there until February 23, when it will attempt to land in Sinus Viscositatis — Latin for “Bay of Stickiness” — a two-and-a-half-week cruise to the Moon. A mysterious region on the near side of the moon.

Vulcan also lifted a secondary payload for Celestis, a company that memorializes people by sending some of their ashes or DNA into space. Two toolbox-sized containers attached to the Vulcan upper stage contain small cylindrical capsules.

Among the people whose remains survived this final voyage were Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek; his wife Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Chapel in the original TV show; And three other actors on the show: DeForest Kelley, who played medical officer Leonard “Bones” McCoy; Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, the communications officer; and James Doohan, who played Montgomery Scott, the chief engineer.

One capsule contains hair samples from three US presidents: George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, and John Kennedy.

A short final engine firing sent the second stage and Celestis Monument into orbit around the sun.

Celestis, as well as another company offering similar services, Elysium Space of San Francisco, have a payload on Peregrine. This prompted an outcry from Navajo tribal leaders, who said that many Native Americans consider the moon a sacred place, and that they consider sending human remains there a desecration. Navajo officials asked the White House to postpone the launch to discuss the matter.

Charles Schiffer, CEO of Celestis, said he respects the religious beliefs of all people, but “I don't think you can regulate space missions based on religious reasons.”

During press conferences, NASA officials indicated that they were not in charge of the mission and had no direct say in other payloads Astrobotic has sold on Peregrine. “There is an intergovernmental meeting being prepared with the Navajo Nation that NASA will support,” Joel Kearns, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration, said during a press conference on Thursday.

Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said on Friday that he was disappointed that “this conversation came up so late in the game,” because his company had announced the Celestis-Elysium partnership years earlier.

“We're really trying to do the right thing,” Mr. Thornton said. “I hope we can find a good way forward with the Navajo Nation.”

NASA announced its program to tap the private sector for lunar deliveries — called Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS — in 2018. But the program has been slow to get off the ground. After repeated delays, Astrobotic's Peregrine flight has become the first CLPS mission to reach space, and will reach lunar orbit first. But she may not be the first to land.

A second CLPS mission, by Intuitive Machines of Houston, is scheduled to launch as early as mid-February and will take a faster path to the Moon, meaning it could reach the surface before Peregrine.

While Vulcan has several payloads to be launched over the next few years, its long-term prospects are less clear. Other aerospace companies are looking to win some Space Force business, and Amazon could in the future shift many of its Kuiper launches to Mr. Bezos' Blue Origin.

Another factor impacting Vulcan's future is that SpaceX is landing and reusing its Falcon 9 boosters, which will likely give it a significant price advantage over ULA. In contrast, the entire Vulcan rocket is only used once. Blue Origin also plans to reuse New Glenn boosters.

ULA is developing technology that could be used to restore the two engines in the booster, the most expensive part of the rocket, but that will only take years.