CAPE CANAVERAL, FL-United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan Centaur launched on its first-ever flight, called Cert-1, early this morning (Jan. 8), from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Vulcan lifted off at 2:18 a.m. EST (0718 GMT), when the rocket’s two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) and two Blue Origin-built BE-4 first-stage engines blasted the vehicle skyward with nearly 2 million pounds of thrust. Atop the rocket was Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic‘s Peregrine moon lander, which is carrying 20 different customer payloads, including five NASA science instruments
The Vulcan Centaur is a new methane-fueled rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA), one
of the U.S.’ most experienced space launch operators. Vulcan VC2S rocket will launch the first certification mission from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Cert-1 flight test includes two payloads. The first is the Peregrine Lunar Lander, Peregrine Mission One (PM1) for Astrobotic as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface. The second payload is the Celestis Memorial Spaceflights deep space Voyager mission known as the Enterprise Flight.
Media Release/ulalaunch.com
