søndag den 7. januar 2024

ULA – Vulcan – Peregrine Lunar Lander

Photo from ULA of the Vulcan launch. I’ll huff. I’ll puff. And I’ll blow your pad away. Just you wait…

Mission Rundown: ULA – Vulcan Centaur – Cert-1

Written: January 8, 2024

Lift Off Time

January 8, 2024 – 02:18:38 EST | 07:18:38 UTC

Mission Name

Cert-1 – Certification flight One

Launch Provider

ULA – United Launch Alliance

Customers

ULA – Astrobotic – Celestis

Rocket

Vulcan Centaur VC2S – Tail no. V-001

Launch Location

Space Launch Complex 41 – SLC-41

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida

Payload

Peregrine lunar lander

Celestis Memorial the ‘Enterprise Flight’

Payload mass

1 283 kg ~ 2 828 pounds

Where did the satellite go?

Earth/Lunar Orbit – 490 km x 385 536 km x 30,03°

Type of launch system?

Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle + 2 SRB’s

The SRB rocket’s fate?

In the Atlantic Ocean east of SLC-41

The first stage landing zone?

Bottom of the Atlantic Ocean 2 500 km downrange

Type of second stage?

Centaur V RL-10A-4-2 engine – 14m 59s burn time

Is the 2nd stage derelict?

Yes – Main engine 3rd start/cutoff was only 20 seconds

New orbit became Heliocentric

Type of fairing?

5.4 meter two part carbon composite fairing

This will be the:

– 159th flight of all ULA rockets

– 1st flight of a Vulcan Centaur rocket – V-001

– 41st mission for NASA ect.

– 1st mission for ULA in 2024

Where to watch

Where to read more in depth

NASA/ULA YouTube link – NasaSpaceFlight video link

Want to know or learn more go visit or see Tim Dodd


Launch debriefing

(This did happen)

Computer graphics is 5 seconds delayed compared to T+

L-00:48:00

Hosts:

L-00:10:00

T-00:07:00

T 00:00:00

T+00:01:14

T+00:01:20

T+00:01:27

T+00:01:49

T+00:04:59

T+00:05:07

T+00:05:18

T+00:05:30

T+00:15:59

T+00:43:44

T+00:50:27

T+01:18:30

T+01:19:25

T+04:00:00

T+04:24:44

NASA/ULA live feed at 04:29 inside the one hour hold

Megan Cruz, Amanda Sterling etc. On flight Rob Gagnon

Final Polling preparing the launch at 42:29

Release one hour hold at 45:29

Liftoff at 52:29 – No T+ clock – 07:18:38.246 UTC

Mach 1 at 53:43 – Speed Mach One 1225,5 km/h

MaxQ at 53:49 – Maximum aerodynamic pressure

SRB burn out at 53:56 – Delayed release

SRB separation at 54:18 – Two GEM-63XL spent

BECO at 57:28 – Atlas V booster is empty – 299 seconds

Stage separation at 57:35 – Just losing 90% weight

MES-1 at 57:47 – Centaur RL-10A-4-2 engine start

Fairing separation at 57:59 – Computer graphic delayed

MECO-1 at 1:08:28 – Coasting toward Madagascar

MES-2 to SECO-2 at 1:36:13 doing a 236 second LTO burn

NASA/ULA show deployment of Peregrine at 1:42:56

MES-3 – SECO-3 for a 20 second heliocentric burn

Wrap up from ULA at 2:11:55 – Calculated T+

Centaur blowout of remaining gasses and fuel

Centaur becomes derelict space debris


Atlas V 541

USSF-12

Atlas V 421

SBIRS GEO-6

Delta IV Heavy

NROL-91

Atlas V 531

SES 20 & 21

Atlas V 401

JPSS-2

Delta IV Heavy

NROL-68

Atlas V 551

NROL-107

Atlas V 501

Kuiper 1

Vulcan VC2S 

Peregrine

Not chosen yet


Knocking it out of the Park

United Launch Alliance (ULA) has done its part in returning the US to the Moon with the launch of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander atop its brand-new Vulcan Centaur rocket. 

Cert-1, The first-ever mission for Vulcan, lifted off on Monday, January 8, 2024 at 02:18:38 EST (07:18:38 UTC) during a 45-minute launch window. It took off from Space Launch Complex(SLC) 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Vulcan was expected to fly in 2023 on Dec. 24, until routine problems with the ground equipment caused only a partial wet dress rehearsal (WDR). The chief executive of ULA, Tory Bruno said, “I’d like a FULL WDR before our first flight, so XMAS eve is likely out.”

This set the launch date to Jan. 8, 2024. Vulcan Centaur was rolled out 500 meters on the Vulcan Launch Platform on Friday, Jan. 5 for what was the final time before launch.

The Vulcan Payload

Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander will attempt to be one of the first US Moon landings since the end of the Apollo program. In 2019, Astrobotic was selected by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) and given a 79.5 million dollar contract to build Peregrine to study the Moon before the Artemis III mission when humans return to it.

Peregrine now has 20 payloads on board, with five of them coming from NASA’s CLPS. These payloads include specific scientific projects with the main goals of looking for water ice in the lunar regolith and gaining more data on the radiation environment, the lunar exosphere, and the magnetic fields on the surface of the Moon. Some payloads are there to represent humanity with art and historical artifacts.

The ‘Blue Eyed’ Peregrine Lunar Lander is ready to be ‘swallowed’ whole by one of the 5.4 meter faring halfs. It makes you want to scream: ‘Look behind you’ – Play the music from ‘Jaws’

Around 40 minutes after separation from Centaur, Peregrine will come to life and will begin receiving signals from Astrobotic’s mission control center in Pittsburgh, PA.

There will be small adjustment maneuvers in Earth’s orbit to check systems for Peregrine’s lunar landing. After those are confirmed, Peregrine will aim its solar panels toward the sun to charge its lithium-ion battery for the long coast to the Moon. 

Peregrine will land in Sinus Vicositatis on Feb. 23 and is expected to operate for eight days. If the mission is successful, Astrobotic will become the first commercial company to successfully land a spacecraft on the Moon.

Celestis Memorial Spaceflights are providing the opportunity to send DNA or cremated remains to deep space. The service called Voyager Memorial Spaceflight promises to send a piece of you or a loved one on a journey to 297 million kilometers into space. 

There will be a memorial service and dinner for the friends family and loved ones who are sending their late friend or family member on one final journey before the launch on Monday.

Celestis Memorial Spaceflights have been around since 1997 and have launched on many different vehicles including Pegasus-XL, Falcon 1, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and now they will fly on Vulcan Centaur.

The Vulcan Launch

ULA began loading the liquified natural gas, liquid hydrogen, and liquid oxygen propellant onto Vulcan late Jan. 7 to ensure full load by Jan.8 at 2:18 AM EST (7:18 AM UTC).

Then, the BE-4 engines ignited before liftoff at T-5 seconds and Vulcan started to gain altitude at T+1 second. It then began the pitch/yaw maneuver after clearing the tower. 

Vulcan reached Mach one at T+1 minute and nine seconds before reaching max-Q or the maximum aerodynamic stress Vulcan will have to endure through its entire flight.

Around 35 seconds later, the GEM 63XL SRBs on the sides, burned out, will now prepare to be separated from the vehicle and were jettisoned.

The BE-4 engines continued to burn until booster engine cutoff at T+ 4:59. Six seconds later, the first stage was done with flight and separated from the second stage.

Centaur V then started its two RL-10 engines at T+5:15. Once the engines were lit, the fairings separated revealing the payloads at T+5:23. 

Centaur continued its initial burn for a little over 10 minutes until T+15:45 into flight. At this point, Vulcan entered a coast phase, which lasted until  T+43 minutes 35 seconds when the RL-10s relit for course correction to TLI while aiming for the Moon. 

At T+47:37 the second stage shut down once again and coasted for just under three minutes. After this coast phase, the Peregrine lunar lander is placed in a highly elliptical orbit where it will then be released to intercept the Moon.

After Peregrine’s separation, Centaur relit one final time at T+1 hour 18 minutes and 24 seconds for 20 seconds to place Celestis Memorial Spaceflight’s ‘Enterprise Flight’ payload into a heliocentric orbit.

The official mission ended as anticipated at T+4:24:44.

The Vulcan Centaur rocket

After nearly a decade of development, Vulcan Centaur launched two payloads using the VC2S variant. The VC2S variant of Vulcan represents a Vulcan Centaur with two solid rocket boosters (SRB) and a standard fairing. This configuration can take Peregrine to the lunar surface and Enterprise Flight to deep space. 

Vulcan is a two-stage rocket that uses liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen on the first stage and liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen on Centaur V, the second stage. The first stage engines are two of Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines that have been in development since 2011. This will be BE-4’s first in-flight mission and will move ULA from Russian dependency with the RD-180 engines on Atlas V to American-made engines on Vulcan. 

Attached to the side of the booster are two graphite-epoxy motors (GEM) 63XL SRBs built by Northrop Grumman. These will be the longest monolithic SRBs ever flown and will be a considerable upgrade to the GEM 63 SRBs used on Atlas V.

Vulcan Centaur split in major parts with a generic spacecraft as payload and no specific details

The second stage will use two RL-10 engines built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. These are the same upper-stage engines that Atlas V used and are proven to be extremely reliable. The standard 15.5-meter payload fairings will be aerodynamically covering the payloads during ascent until second-stage ignition where they will be jettisoned. 

Vulcan is 61.6 meters tall and 5.4 meters in diameter. It will weigh 663,367 kilograms when fully loaded on the launch pad, and will produce 8.9 meganewtons of thrust at liftoff. This flight of Vulcan will be heading to a Trans-lunar Injection(TLI) to get a payload to the Moon and then change to a heliocentric orbit. This means with the two SRB Vulcan will be able to deliver up to 6,300 kilograms to the Moon.

Everyday Astronaut: Austin Desisto link

NasaSpaceFlight: Aaron McCrea link

Gunter’s Space Page: Details link Atlas link

Coauthor/Text Retriever Johnny Nielsen

link to ULA launch list - Link to ULA Fan


fredag den 6. oktober 2023

ULA - Atlas V 501 - Kuiper 1

Screenshot from ULA Webcast of the launch of Kuiper 1. Let’s go for the second time this year...

Mission Rundown: ULA - Atlas V 501 - Kuiper 1

Written: October 7, 2023

Lift Off Time

October 6, 2023 - 14:06:00 EDT - 18:06:00 UTC

Mission Name

Project Kuiper Protoflight 1

Launch Provider

ULA - United Launch Alliance

Customers

Kuiper Systems LLC - Part of Amazon

Rocket

Atlas V 501

Launch Location

Space Launch Complex 41 - SLC-41

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida

Payload

2 prototype communication satellites

Payload mass

8 113 kg ~ 17 848 pounds - Maximum liftoff weight

Where did the satellites go?

Low Earth Orbit - 499 km x 501 km x 30,0° 

Type of launch system?

Atlas Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle - No SRB

The first stage landing zone?

Bottom of the Atlantic Ocean 2 600 km downrange

Type of second stage?

Centaur RL-10A-4-2 engine - 10m 12s burn time + xx seconds heliocentric orbit insertion burn?

Is the Centaur stage derelict?

Yes - Main engine 2nd start/cutoff length unknown

Type of fairing?

5,4 meter two part carbon composite fairing

This will be the:

– 158th flight of all ULA rockets

– 99th flight of an Atlas V rocket - Tail no. AV-104

– 8th flight of an Atlas V in the 501 configuration

– 20th commercial mission for ULA

– 2nd mission for ULA in 2023

Where to watch

Where to read more

ULA YouTube link - NasaSpaceFlight link

Want to know or learn more visit or see Tim Dodd


Launch debriefing

(What happens)

At MaxQ a contrail was seen forming after the rocket. This is a sign of the rocket flying through the Jetstream

Wind Shears and a high humidity is present so it can be a backbreaking straw on the rocket

With the lack of signal from the latter part of the launch one can think: What is Kuiper exactly? A military share ride?

L-00:25:39

Host:

L-00:07:00

T-00:04:00

T 00:00:00

T+00:01:21

T+00:01:30

T+00:03:33

T+00:04:35

T+00:04:41

T+00:04:54

T+00:05:47

T+00:15:06

T+00:18:00

T+00:18:30

T+00:40:00

ULA live at 00:30 - Just before a 21 minute hold

Amanda Sterling at T-4:39

Final Polling preparing the launch at 19:09

Release -4 minute hold at 22:09

Liftoff at 26:09 - No T+ clock - 18:06:00.171 UTC

Mach 1 at 27:32 - Speed Mach One 1225,5 km/h

MaxQ at 27:39 - Maximum aerodynamic pressure

Fairing separation at 29:42 - We’re in space now

BECO 30:44 - Atlas V booster is empty

Stage separation 30:50 - Just lost 93% weight

MES-1 at 31:03 - 612 second burn time

Wrap up from 31:56 - End of ULA broadcast

SECO-1 - Centaur coasting in Low Earth Orbit

Kuiper Sat-1 deployed at ?

Kuiper Sat-2 deployed at ?

MES-2 - SECO-2 - does a heliocentric orbit burn


Atlas V 541

USSF-12

Atlas V 421

SBIRS GEO-6

Delta IV Heavy

NROL-91

Atlas V 531

SES 20 & 21

Atlas V 401

JPSS-2

Delta IV Heavy

NROL-68

Atlas V 551

NROL-107

Atlas V 501

Kuiper 1

Mission not 

chosen yet

Lack in the Information Highway

This launch of an Atlas V marks United Launch Alliance’s 158th mission. It will launch the Project Kuiper Protoflight with two test satellites into a Low Earth Orbit (LEO). An Atlas V in a 501 configuration will launch from SLC-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Atlas V tail number AV-104, a unique designation assigned to each individual Atlas rocket which began with Atlas-Centaur rockets in the 1960s. The Atlas-Centaur tail numbers (first with the AC-001) were continued by the Atlas I, Atlas II and Atlas III rockets which evolved the Atlas-Centaur design, before being replaced with the “AV” series for Atlas V.

ULA’s Atlas V 501 launched from SLC-41, CCAFS October 6, 2023 at 14:06 EDT

Atlas V 501 with Kuiper 1 launch in a 30 degree orbit from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral

Kuiper 1 launched aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket, which flew in the 501 configuration for this launch. This was the ninety-seventh flight of an Atlas V rocket, one of the most proven and reliable rockets currently in service.

Atlas is a two-stage rocket, consisting of a Common Core Booster (CCB) and a Centaur upper stage. It can fly with up to five AJ-60A solid rocket boosters to provide additional performance for heavier payloads or where the rocket is targeting a higher-energy orbit.

However, with lightweight payloads like the Kuiper 1 Atlas flies without these additional motors. In the 501 configuration there's a 5 meter fairing and a single Centaur engine.

This launch will use the shortest version of the five-meter fairing, which is 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) wide and measures 20.7 meters (68 feet) in length. The composite structure is produced by Swiss manufacturer RUAG, who also makes a similar fairing for the European Ariane 5 rocket.

When Atlas V flies with a five-meter fairing, the fairing attaches to the interstage between the first and second stages, completely enclosing the Centaur upper stage as well as the payload. Because of this, the fairing must be jettisoned during first-stage flight.

By around three minutes, 40 seconds mission elapsed time mark Atlas reached space, and the fairing was no longer needed, so it could be safely discarded. A few seconds later the forward load reactor also separated. This device, which attaches at the forward end of the Centaur, helps to spread some of the payload’s weight across the lower half of the fairing.

Screenshot of Atlas V 501 with an X-37B as its payload. It's a tight fit for a space plane.

This inclosure of the Centaur 2nd stage makes the fairing far larger than necessary, and also make the fairing look too big. The fairing half is actually made of two ¼ sections, top and bottom bolted together in the middle.

Another reason for this design is the highly volatile Hydrogen gas ability to penetrate any material in fuel tanks, fuelpipes, valves and even the fairings themself.

The payload in the top compartment is pressurized with a dry nitrogen gas, preventing hydrogen gas from penetrating into the payload. With no oxygen there can be no fire or explosion so the payload is secure from this source of destruction.

The number of vent holes in the lower part of the fairings indicates that the hydrogen gas is present and abundant enough to cause a major accident. Liquid hydrogen tanks are in their supercooled state even more prone to hydrogen gas penetration and therefore even more dangerous around oxygen and electric spark sources.

The Centaur making a second burn to be disposed of into solar orbit has happened at least six times before with light payloads. The Atlas V Centaurs are being placed out of Earth's orbit despite the payload isn't going there.

The Kuiper 1 Payload

The Project Kuiper Protoflight Atlas V carried two prototype satellites for the upcoming Kuiper broadband satellite constellation, which needs to place half of its 3,236 satellites in orbit before July 2026. These satellites, known as Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2, are set to be placed into a circular 500-kilometer low-Earth orbit inclined 30 degrees to the Equator.

Kuipersat-1 and Kuipersat-2 would finally reach orbit over five years after SpaceX launched its prototype Starlink satellites Tintin A and B. The Kuiper constellation, which got its name from the Kuiper Belt of objects orbiting beyond Neptune, is planned to provide broadband to unserved or underserved regions, and like Starlink, will be marketed to consumers.

Photo of X-37B in a fairing. The blue tiles are soundproofing. Maybe Kuiper 1 was in its cargo bay?

A good portion of Kuiper’s satellites are planned to fly on ULA Atlas V or Vulcan rockets, while Blue Origin and Arianespace have also received contracts to fly these satellites. A shareholder lawsuit has been filed by a pension fund that believes the Amazon board of directors acted in bad faith and did not properly consider flying the satellites aboard SpaceX and its Falcon 9.

This was only the 20th commercial mission for ULA, which has flown many national security and NASA missions aboard its rockets over nearly two decades. The Kuiper Protoflight mission was also the eighth and final flight of the Atlas V 501 configuration.

All future Atlas V flights will involve the 551 or N22 configurations. The N22 will be used for Starliner missions while the 551 configuration will be used by eight Project Kuiper missions, USSF-51, and ViaSat-3 EMEA.

Everyday Astronaut: Claire Percival link

NasaSpaceFlight: Justin Davenport link

Coauthor/Text Retriever Johnny Nielsen

link to ULA launch list - Link to ULA Fan


ULA – Vulcan – Peregrine Lunar Lander

Photo from ULA of the Vulcan launch. I’ll huff. I’ll puff. And I’ll blow your pad away. Just you wait… Mission Rundown: ULA – Vulcan Centaur...