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ULA launch and discussion thread


tater

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https://www.space.com/atlas-v-rocket-launch-fuel-dump-visible

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The fuel dump is expected for 9:11:40 p.m. EST (6:11:40 p.m. PST). It should suddenly appear to the naked eye as an expanding circular, comet-like cloud about 10 to 15 degrees west (or to the right) of the bright bluish zero-magnitude star Rigel in the Orion constellation. Your clenched fist held at arm's length measures roughly 10 degrees, so approximately "one or one and a half fists" to the right of Rigel is where the cloud should appear.  

 

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https://spacenews.com/space-and-national-security-what-to-expect-in-2022/

More Vulcan delays: ULA is now expecting the first engines to arrive in mid-2022 to hopefully fly Vulcan by the end of the year. 2023 seems more believable by now imho

Today's badly aged tweet award goes to tory I'd say (the thread starts with Berger saying he expects Vulcan not to fly before 12-18 months, which would be September 2021- march 2022)

 

Edited by Beccab
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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, the union has to accept job losses on this, I'm afraid. The way to compete with SpX is to get lean and mean, meaning less man-hours per vehicle. ULA justified their price with their schedule and mission reliability, but the success of F9 starts to make that premium appear less valuable. 

And when they're still waiting on engines for Vulcan, whatever the price for that will be...

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48 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

And when they're still waiting on engines for Vulcan, whatever the price for that will be...

Vulcan was aiming for ~$80M a launch, which is actually pretty reasonable.

Edited by tater
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Not news, but discussion. ULA won the AF contract, with 60% of the launches up to when, 2027? In order to fulfill this, they need a launch vehicle, Vulcan. AF flights I think require 3 (?) successful demonstration flights ahead of their payloads being permitted. So ULA needs engines, then they need to fly 3 times before they can even start selling launches for the 1 good contract they have right now. They will no doubt also get some NASA work as the Centaur they will fly will keep them as the go to for payloads with a high C3 requirement.

In the longer term, them getting engines means that BO has engines. And while BO initially acted like NG would not compete with Vulcan, NG will absolutely compete with Vulcan, and they stopped hiding that when they tried for the same AF contract. The future for ULA seems sorta bleak to me. getting Vulcan going pretty much means NG is a thing, so they are now competing vs SpaceX and BO. Those 2 will presumably pushing the costs lower vs each other... though if SS is functioning NG likely has issues as well. But ULA? Not sure where they go over a longer term strategically.

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On 2/16/2022 at 7:20 PM, tater said:

Vulcan was aiming for ~$80M a launch, which is actually pretty reasonable.

Which version was that for? ULA still operates under that “dial-a-rocket” idea where they put different amounts of boosters on it, so I’d think there would be increasing prices for increased capability.

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7 minutes ago, RyanRising said:

Which version was that for? ULA still operates under that “dial-a-rocket” idea where they put different amounts of boosters on it, so I’d think there would be increasing prices for increased capability.

I think the bare stack Vulcan (no SRMs) was $82M.

 

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