/sci/ - Science & Math

ULA targets Christmas Eve for inaugural Vulcan rocket launch, CEO says
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https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/24/ula-ceo-inaugural-vulcan-rocket-launch-slated-for-christmas-eve.html
> United Launch Alliance plans to launch the inaugural flight of its Vulcan rocket on Christmas Eve, CEO Tory Bruno told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan on Tuesday.
> Bruno, speaking at the CNBC Technology Executive Council Summit, said the target window for Vulcan’s first launch runs between Dec. 24 and Dec. 26. The rocket will lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
> ULA is currently working to build and qualify the upper stage of the rocket, running those tasks “in parallel,” Bruno said, with both expected to “get done in November.”
> Vulcan’s first mission will carry a commercial lunar lander built by Astrobotic and a payload for Celestis. The latter will contain the ashes of people who wanted to be buried in space as part of a memorial service.
> “It does change the nature of our business. It makes it a lot more balanced. Before we were probably about 80% government. And now with our other commercial work in Amazon Kuiper constellation, it’s about 50-50,” Bruno said. “That’s a lot healthier place to be, because when one is out, the other is still fine.”