Hi friends, it’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero with a quick update to a very important launch that was previously scheduled for Christmas Eve, a day when usually the only big story on the Space Coast is Surfing Santas!
Over the weekend, after being unable to finish a wet dress rehearsal of the new Vulcan Centaur, United Launch Alliance president Tory Bruno said he wants ULA to fully complete the test before launching the heavy-lift rocket for the first time, and that means liftoff on Dec. 24 is now unlikely.
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Some space journalists thanked Bruno for making the safe decision and for giving all who would be working the launch time to spend Christmas Eve with their families.
Had the test over weekend been satisfactory and the launch date remained scheduled for Dec. 24, Vulcan’s first certification mission might have been the most important launch of any mission during a record-breaking 2023. If you think that sounds farfetched considering the most powerful rocket in human history launched twice this year, here’s an argument for Cert-1.
Unlike Starship, Vulcan is expected to launch properly the first time because all its components have already been tested to failure. Should something blow up, it could be a much bigger setback to ULA than Starship’s in-flight explosions were to SpaceX this year. ULA can’t afford to have flight tests like Starship with all the delays Vulcan has suffered already. The new rocket has to fly now with is first paying customers.
And with a lunar lander on board, Vulcan’s first flight isn’t just going to orbit, it’s going all the way to the moon. The lander would become the first American spacecraft to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, a major milestone for NASA’s future ambitions of going to the moon to stay long-term.
Bruno says the new launch window opens January 8 and will last four days. The new launch time isn’t reported yet, but Bruno says it will also be sometime in the early morning hours.
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👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After seven years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!