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Sunday, February 25, 2018
Last Saturday in an interview with a financial and business news website Business Insider, a United States spacecraft launch services company United Launch Alliance (ULA) CEO Tory Bruno announced the plans to finish development of a new rocket, Vulcan, to provide space launch missions at 30% of ULA’s current launch cost by 2020. In particular, this cost reduction would be achieved by making the rocket reusable.
ULA’s current non-reusable Delta IV Heavy rocket had costed around $350 million per launch. In the conversation with Business Insider, Tory Bruno remarked that they would achieve a competitive cost target by 2020, saying, “ULA aims to start Vulcan missions by mid-2020. The mission cost could be sub-$100-million, a major reduction from ULA’s current cost of $350 million per launch.”
American private space transport services company SpaceX had pioneered reusable rocket launch technologies, providing launches at $90 million, which is 25% cost of that provided by rivals. The reusable rocket technology had been introduced on February 6, 2018, by landing the two out of three rocket stages intact, onto special landing sites located near the launch location.
In the interview with Business Insider, Tory Bruno also emphazised on its plans to use cryogenic oxygen and cryogenic hydrogen fuel in the upper stage of Vulcan. Tory Bruno remarked that unlike RP-1 kerosene used by a SpaceX’s upper stage, this cryogenic fuel would be more resistant to low temperatures of outer space.
Tory Bruno said that the currently used Delta IV rocket was capable of lifting a payload of 32 tonnes while the rival SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy payload was about 72 tonnes. The new ULA’s Vulcan rocket would have a payload of 40 tonnes, Tory Bruno said.
Tory Bruno also remarked that ULA would create an autonomous return technology called “SMART (sensible, modular, autonomous return technology)” to recover first-stage engines to further reduce the launch mission costs. The company would also attempt catching the falling rocket stages using a helicopter in the case they miss the the landing site.
According to Business Insider, SpaceX was expected to roll out its “new technologies” in 2023.
United Launch Alliance had been created by Lockheed Martin and Boeing in 2005.