ULA Rolls First Vulcan Rocket To The Pad Ahead Of Testing Campaign For Launch

After stacking inside the Vehicle Integration Facility (VIF) in late January, United Launch Alliance (ULA) has rolled out their newest rocket - Vulcan Centaur - to Space Launch Complex-41 (SLC-41) for a testing campaign ahead of launch. Once the rocket has completed testing it will launch on the Vulcan Certification-1 mission, sending the Peregrine lander to the Moon.

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What's Next?

Now that Vulcan is at the pad, fuel-loading exercises will be done. Each tanking day will be lengthy and incorporate extensive special test objectives. Each and every test will help teams understand the rocket more and prepare them for launch. The testing will culminate with a Flight Readiness Firing (FRF) to practice the full day-of-launch timeline complete with a brief ignition of the rocket's BE-4 main engines on the pad.

Once the Flight Readiness Firing is complete ULA will roll Vulcan and the VLP back to the VIF where the two GEM-63 Solid Rocket Motors (SRM) and the payload will be installed. The rocket will then be rolled back out to the launch site for launch.