ULA Set for Inaugural Flight of Vulcan Centaur as 3 Companies Negotiate Purchase of Venerable Launch Provider
Certification-1 launch is ‘Go’ for 8 Jan at 2:18 EST following positive Launch Readiness Review; Vulcan Centaur V-001 fully stacked at Cape Canaveral Vertical Integration Facility with 61.6-m VC2S configuration (2 SRBs / standard payload fairing) carrying Astrobotic Peregrine lunar lander (itself holding 20 NASA and commercial payloads); ULA is reportedly courting sale, with private equity group Cerberus, Beechcraft / Cessna owner Textron, and most prominently Blue Origin among potential buyers; Vulcan Centaur first stage is powered by twin BE-4 methalox engines built near ULA facility in Huntsville AL, synergies which could help a combined ULA-Blue Origin challenge SpaceX launch industry dominance with ~$118M / launch price point