ULA To Conduct Vulcan Flight Readiness Firing Today

ULA announced this afternoon that they are planning to conduct another attempt at the Flight Readiness Firing of the twin BE-4 engines of their next generation Vulcan-Centaur launch vehicle today.

2 minute read•Updated 7:36 AM EDT, Sat March 30, 2024

ULA announced this afternoon that they are planning to conduct another attempt at the Flight Readiness Firing of the twin BE-4 engines of their next-generation Vulcan-Centaur launch vehicle today.

The vehicle was rolled back out to SLC-41 yesterday following checkouts of the vehicle's booster ignition system after a scrubbed attempt at the test on May 25 due to a "delayed response from the booster engine ignition system", which prompted a rollback to the VIF for further inspections.

The test, which is targeted for some time after 6 pm EST, is the final major test of the Vulcan rocket before it can head for the moon NET July, however, no target date has been announced. It will involve the team tanking the vehicle to flight levels, running through launch day procedures, and finally - for the very first time, firing up the twin Blue Origin BE-4 engines on the Vulcan booster for around 6 seconds including startup and shutdown.

"FRF is really about confirming the operational readiness of the integrated system: launch vehicle, ground systems, facilities, and the associated software. In addition, we will demonstrate the ability to successfully execute the engine start sequence and validate our hot-fire abort response procedures," said Dillon Rice, ULA's Vulcan launch conductor.