United Launch Alliance (ULA) will launch the first official flight of its heavy Vulcan VC2S rocket. The launch schedule is announced after long delays and preparations.
The ULA Vulcan rocket will take off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The mission includes two payloads. The launch is scheduled for January 8, 2024, at 2:18 a.m. ET.
The first payload consists of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Peregrine Lunar Lander. This Peregrine Mission One (PM1) for astrobotic set to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface.
The Peregrine commercial lunar lander will be deployed into a highly elliptical orbit of over 220,000 miles (360,000 km) above Earth to intercept the moon and carry forward its mission.
The second payload carries Celestis Memorial Spaceflight’s deep space voyager mission known as Enterprise Flight.
ULA Vulcan Mission
Mission Events:
Following a liftoff, the vehicle will experience Maximum Dynamic Pressure around 1:16 minutes. The side boosters will cut off at around 1:50 minutes, followed by the main booster cutoff and separation after 5 minutes.
The booster separation will trigger the second-stage engine at around 5:14 minutes. The deployment will start around 50 minutes of the mission time and will spend around 4:24 hours in orbit before delivering the second payload into deep space.
(source – ULA)