CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – United Launch Alliance has set a Christmas Eve launch date for the maiden flight of the Vulcan Centaur rocket.
ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket will launch the Peregrine Moon lander for Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic.
The Vulcan has been assembled at the Florida launch site since early February. In March, while testing the rocket’s Centaur upper stage at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, a fire on the test stand led to an investigation that is now complete, clearing the way for Vulcan’s first liftoff.
ULA announced the Christmas Eve launch date on Tuesday but did not reveal the liftoff time. The company said it will announce the T-0 closer to the liftoff date.
When it happens on Christmas Eve, Vulcan will liftoff from Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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The Vulcan Centaur is designed to replace ULA’s workhorse rocket, the Atlas V rocket, which uses Russian-built RD-180 engines. Vulcan will use two Blue Origin BE-4 engines and solid rocket boosters to provide up to 3.8 million pounds of thrust.
The Peregrine lander will ship out from the Astrobotic’s clean room in Pittsburgh on Friday to head to the Florida launch site. The clean room is one of the few places the public can view work on a spacecraft as it is part of the Moonshot Museum.
After landing on the Moon, Peregrine will provide power and communication to NASA and private customer payloads.
Peregrine will also have time capsules sent up as part of Astrobotic’s DHL Moonbox program, which allows people to purchase space on the lander for small personal items.
Astrobotic was one of about a dozen companies selected under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to deliver science payloads to the Moon’s surface. The robotic program will help NASA prepare for returning humans to the Moon in 2025.