The New Vulcan Rocket - Space Pod 04/14/15

SpaceX wasn't able to launch yesterday due to weather, but United Launch Alliance revealed details about their next generation launch system, the Vulcan rocket. This is your SpacePod for April 14, 2015. United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno made the announcement yesterday at the 31st Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, where he revealed the name, which was chosen by an online poll that United Launch Alliance had put out, and he also revealed details about how the rocket The main impression I got was that this rocket would be modular and evolvable. Tory Bruno stated that they would be using the best technologies of Atlas V and Delta IV, and be incorporating several new technologies as well. As previously announced, United Launch Alliance has teamed up with Blue Origin to develop the BE-4 methane rocket engine, for the purpose of replacing the Russian-made RD-180 engines used on the first stage of the Atlas V. United Launch Alliance also plans to use the BE-4 engines to power the first stage of the Vulcan rocket. However, Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR-1 kerosene engines are also being considered, and a final decision will come next year as to which engines they'll use. Two main variants of this rocket were discussed, both of which would have a Centaur upper stage to deliver its payload into their intended orbits. The first variant would have a 4 meter payload fairing, with anywhere from 0 to up to 4 solid rocket boosters for additional thrust. The other version had a 5 meter payload fairing, with up to 6 solid rocket boosters. Based on the picture of this version, I'm assuming that the diameter of the first stage is also 5 meters, which would make sense to me because Delta IV's core stage diameter is also 5 meters, and United Launch Alliance already has the tooling to begin manufacturing a new 5 meter rocket. And just for comparison, the Atlas V is only 3.81 meters in diameter. To bring the cost down on the Vulcan rocket, which right now is set at about 100 million dollars per launch, United Launch Alliance wants to be able to recover and reuse not the first stage of the rocket, but just the engines of the first stage, which according to Tory Bruno make up about 65% of the cost of the first stage. The way that they would plan to recover those engines is, during its flight, after the second stage has already separated from the first stage, they would decouple the engines at the intended time, and then a hypersonic inflatable heat shield would deploy, and later be jettisoned when the engines reach subsonic speeds. They would be slowed down further by small parachutes, and then finally a parafoil, which would probably give them some glidability, so that they would be easier to capture mid-air by a helicopter, and then recovered, and hopefully be recertified for future use. Tory Bruno stated that this method of recovery would bring the cost down significantly, but that they would not attempt to do it on the first flight, which is tentatively scheduled for sometime in 2019. They would probably implement this recoverable technology over, you know, incremental steps. Another advancement that United Launch Alliance is planning to develop is a new upper stage to replace their Centaur engines. They're calling this new stage the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage, or ACES, and it will feature some planned upgrades, including lightweight balloon tanks, 1-4 rocket engines supplied by either Aerojet Rocketdyne, X-Core, or Blue Origin, which company and configuration will be decided later. Also, they would use internal combustion engines to recycle waste propellants back into the fuel tanks to repressurize the tanks. They would also generate electricity, provide attitude control thrust, and enable potentially unlimited engine restarts, which could extend the lifespan and use of that upper stage tremendously. Until the ACES is actually developed, though, they would use Centaur upper stages on all Vulcan flights. Based on their step-by-step approach to advancing the capabilities of this rocket, I would hope that they're also looking to improve in other areas as well, like maybe a Vulcan Heavy option, or human raiding the rocket. It'd be cool to maybe even have a docking port and some attitude control thrusters on that upper stage so that it could be docked with and refueled. Actually, that might have something to do with Lockheed Martin's Jupiter Exo-Liner that was proposed recently. Hmm, very interesting. I actually think that this is a really good idea, and I'm happy to see United Launch Alliance taking their competitors seriously and working to bring the cost down of their launches. When I first heard that they were doing reusability, I thought it might be a copy of what SpaceX is trying to do, but after finding out more about what their plans actually are, I can see the merits of it, and I actually support this. I hope that they are able to accomplish this, and that they're able to achieve their step-by-step goals that they have to having the most advanced rocket that they've flown to date. Anyway, thank you very much for watching this SpacePod. My name is Michael Clark, and I would love to hear what you think about this whole new Vulcan rocket that United Launch Alliance has announced. Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already, and if you're interested in helping us out to make these SpacePods, then please visit patreon.com slash spacepod to find out more information about how you can enable us to bring you all sorts of cool space stuff like this. Thank you again for watching this video. Good luck to United Launch Alliance, and also good luck to SpaceX, who hopefully will be launching the Falcon 9 rocket today with a Dragon capsule bound for the International Space Station.