Author Topic: ULA Vulcan Launch Vehicle (as announced/built) - General Discussion Thread 3  (Read 972203 times)

Offline Jim

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Don't think ULA plus AJR is competitive.  Neither has adjusted to the realities of today's and tomorrow's market

No, people are just over hyping the "realities of today's and tomorrow's market".  Most don't know what they are talking about and just repost the same unsupported biased opinions.
« Last Edit: 12/28/2017 04:39 pm by Jim »

Offline rockets4life97

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How many more Delta IV single stick rockets does ULA plan to fly before they are retired?

Offline ethan829

How many more Delta IV single stick rockets does ULA plan to fly before they are retired?

Three. NROL-47, GPS-III, and WGS-10. If all fly as currently scheduled, 2018 will be the last year for the single-stick Delta IV.

Offline john smith 19

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How many more Delta IV single stick rockets does ULA plan to fly before they are retired?

Three. NROL-47, GPS-III, and WGS-10. If all fly as currently scheduled, 2018 will be the last year for the single-stick Delta IV.
Is that "Unless someone places another order for one" or they are no longer accepting new orders for them at all?
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Online ZachS09

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How many more Delta IV single stick rockets does ULA plan to fly before they are retired?

Three. NROL-47, GPS-III, and WGS-10. If all fly as currently scheduled, 2018 will be the last year for the single-stick Delta IV.
Is that "Unless someone places another order for one" or they are no longer accepting new orders for them at all?

The second option you listed. In other words, ULA wants to retire the single-stick version no matter what happens.
« Last Edit: 01/08/2018 05:08 pm by ZachS09 »
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Offline russianhalo117

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How many more Delta IV single stick rockets does ULA plan to fly before they are retired?

Three. NROL-47, GPS-III, and WGS-10. If all fly as currently scheduled, 2018 will be the last year for the single-stick Delta IV.
Is that "Unless someone places another order for one" or they are no longer accepting new orders for them at all?
Only orders can be placed for the Atlas V and DIVH. Vulcan orders should begin this year for the opening launches.

Offline john smith 19

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Only orders can be placed for the Atlas V and DIVH. Vulcan orders should begin this year for the opening launches.
That sounds pretty definite.  They are starting to pivot the company.

The joker is if they can design in the hooks for DIVH performance in Vulcan from the beginning, which they seem to be moving toward.
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Offline Zed_Noir

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<snip>
Only orders can be placed for the Atlas V and DIVH. Vulcan orders should begin this year for the opening launches.

Seriously,  what is the cut off date for ordering a DIVH?

Like will 2018 be the last year that you can order a DIVH.

Offline woods170

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<snip>
Only orders can be placed for the Atlas V and DIVH. Vulcan orders should begin this year for the opening launches.

Seriously,  what is the cut off date for ordering a DIVH?

Like will 2018 be the last year that you can order a DIVH.


No date given. ULA stated that Delta IVH will be terminated only after it is no longer needed for NSS missions.

Offline john smith 19

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<snip>
Only orders can be placed for the Atlas V and DIVH. Vulcan orders should begin this year for the opening launches.

Seriously,  what is the cut off date for ordering a DIVH?

Like will 2018 be the last year that you can order a DIVH.


No date given. ULA stated that Delta IVH will be terminated only after it is no longer needed for NSS missions.
This is why the announcement that Vulcan with the Centaur 5/V/not ACES/Whatever-it's-called US will have (in principle) DIVH lift capability from first launch is very important.

Provided they can convince the DoD Vulcan is anywhere close to that (ideally even before the first Vulcan launches) they can start in on shutting down the DIVH line as well. I'm guessing by that time Atlas V will be long gone by then as well.
MCT ITS BFR SS. The worlds first Methane fueled FFSC engined CFRP SS structure A380 sized aerospaceplane tail sitter capable of Earth & Mars atmospheric flight.First flight to Mars by end of 2022 TBC. T&C apply. Trust nothing. Run your own #s "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" R. Simberg."Competitve" means cheaper ¬cheap SCramjet proposed 1956. First +ve thrust 2004. US R&D spend to date > $10Bn. #deployed designs. Zero.

Offline Chasm

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Not really, Vulcan will be produced on modified Delta IV tooling.
The have (had?) a final round of orders for Delta IV Heavy. Those will be (were?) build and stored until use.

The big difference is that there won't be a gap in bidding specific launches for ULA. As I understand they really needed to go into the next EELV selection with the capability to service all launch requirements from day one.
Another thing is that Centaur V will accumulate flight time from the first Vulcan launch. That should make the decision to put the really expensive payloads on it easier.

Offline yokem55

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Not really, Vulcan will be produced on modified Delta IV tooling.
The have (had?) a final round of orders for Delta IV Heavy. Those will be (were?) build and stored until use.

The big difference is that there won't be a gap in bidding specific launches for ULA. As I understand they really needed to go into the next EELV selection with the capability to service all launch requirements from day one.
Another thing is that Centaur V will accumulate flight time from the first Vulcan launch. That should make the decision to put the really expensive payloads on it easier.
What about converting some of those DH contracts to Vulcan? Maintaining the pad at Vandenberg isn't cheap. If they can fly those contracts on Vulcan instead, I'm betting they would prefer that.

Offline russianhalo117

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Not really, Vulcan will be produced on modified Delta IV tooling.
The have (had?) a final round of orders for Delta IV Heavy. Those will be (were?) build and stored until use.

The big difference is that there won't be a gap in bidding specific launches for ULA. As I understand they really needed to go into the next EELV selection with the capability to service all launch requirements from day one.
Another thing is that Centaur V will accumulate flight time from the first Vulcan launch. That should make the decision to put the really expensive payloads on it easier.
What about converting some of those DH contracts to Vulcan? Maintaining the pad at Vandenberg isn't cheap. If they can fly those contracts on Vulcan instead, I'm betting they would prefer that.
NSS contracts don't work that way DIVH will be maintained until the USG certifies Vulcan and executes the transition plan. DIVH is being built and stockpiled so there is bound to be some unflown launchers just like Titan-IVB and Atlas-IIAS and others.

Offline john smith 19

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The big difference is that there won't be a gap in bidding specific launches for ULA. As I understand they really needed to go into the next EELV selection with the capability to service all launch requirements from day one.
Another thing is that Centaur V will accumulate flight time from the first Vulcan launch. That should make the decision to put the really expensive payloads on it easier.
Going with full capability from first launch, rather than needing a 2nd US design later, just makes a lot more sense. As you say it starts racking up launch reliability data to speed up the retiring of DIVH.

Now if they can just get IVF moving. 
MCT ITS BFR SS. The worlds first Methane fueled FFSC engined CFRP SS structure A380 sized aerospaceplane tail sitter capable of Earth & Mars atmospheric flight.First flight to Mars by end of 2022 TBC. T&C apply. Trust nothing. Run your own #s "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" R. Simberg."Competitve" means cheaper ¬cheap SCramjet proposed 1956. First +ve thrust 2004. US R&D spend to date > $10Bn. #deployed designs. Zero.

Offline Chasm

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I think they will fly the Delta IV Heavy out.
The required support infrastructure and staff is expensive but that is something the customer pays for. As far as we know NRO is the only final order customer. Launch is supposed to be a rounding error for their major satellite programs. On the plus side they can have high confidence that the launch will work.

Perhaps ULA can even fly the one spare they want to build. I'd certainly try to find a customer to fly ASAP after the last preorder. For cheap, even auction it of. Some restrictions apply, payload has to be at AstroTech checked out and ready for launch when the last campaign is scheduled. Free transfer to a RapidLaunch Vulcan in case the spare is required for the NRO.

If in doubt I'd stick a propellant depot on it and launch that. Got to get experience with them somehow.
But then I also liked the idea to launch a mini ACES on the (non existing) final Delta II spare in order to get some flight time. Testing a least the HIAD part of SMART recovery in the same launch. Must have some payload after all. ;)

Offline AncientU

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The big difference is that there won't be a gap in bidding specific launches for ULA. As I understand they really needed to go into the next EELV selection with the capability to service all launch requirements from day one.
Another thing is that Centaur V will accumulate flight time from the first Vulcan launch. That should make the decision to put the really expensive payloads on it easier.
Going with full capability from first launch, rather than needing a 2nd US design later, just makes a lot more sense. As you say it starts racking up launch reliability data to speed up the retiring of DIVH.

Now if they can just get IVF moving.

But what about all that excess, wasted capacity when launching the predominant 401 payloads?
Building it* but not using it, and then dumping it in the ocean is expensive... 

* Especially if the Centaur V has 3-4 RL-10s on it.
« Last Edit: 01/11/2018 12:33 pm by AncientU »
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Offline Jim

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The big difference is that there won't be a gap in bidding specific launches for ULA. As I understand they really needed to go into the next EELV selection with the capability to service all launch requirements from day one.
Another thing is that Centaur V will accumulate flight time from the first Vulcan launch. That should make the decision to put the really expensive payloads on it easier.
Going with full capability from first launch, rather than needing a 2nd US design later, just makes a lot more sense. As you say it starts racking up launch reliability data to speed up the retiring of DIVH.

Now if they can just get IVF moving.

But what about all that excess, wasted capacity when launching the predominant 401 payloads?
Building it but not using it, and then dumping it in the ocean is expensive...

No different than using excess performance to return a booster and not reuse it

Offline AncientU

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The big difference is that there won't be a gap in bidding specific launches for ULA. As I understand they really needed to go into the next EELV selection with the capability to service all launch requirements from day one.
Another thing is that Centaur V will accumulate flight time from the first Vulcan launch. That should make the decision to put the really expensive payloads on it easier.
Going with full capability from first launch, rather than needing a 2nd US design later, just makes a lot more sense. As you say it starts racking up launch reliability data to speed up the retiring of DIVH.

Now if they can just get IVF moving.

But what about all that excess, wasted capacity when launching the predominant 401 payloads?
Building it but not using it, and then dumping it in the ocean is expensive...

No different than using excess performance to return a booster and not reuse it

Exactly.
All who are complaining about this should be complaining about Vulcan -- especially since they are definitely dumping it in the ocean.

So Jim, Ed, etc., let's hear why this excess capacity being planned for Vulcan/Centaur V is such a crappy idea.
« Last Edit: 01/11/2018 01:29 pm by AncientU »
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Offline envy887

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The big difference is that there won't be a gap in bidding specific launches for ULA. As I understand they really needed to go into the next EELV selection with the capability to service all launch requirements from day one.
Another thing is that Centaur V will accumulate flight time from the first Vulcan launch. That should make the decision to put the really expensive payloads on it easier.
Going with full capability from first launch, rather than needing a 2nd US design later, just makes a lot more sense. As you say it starts racking up launch reliability data to speed up the retiring of DIVH.

Now if they can just get IVF moving.

But what about all that excess, wasted capacity when launching the predominant 401 payloads?
Building it but not using it, and then dumping it in the ocean is expensive...

No different than using excess performance to return a booster and not reuse it

Exactly.
All who are complaining about this should be complaining about Vulcan -- especially since they are definitely dumping it in the ocean.

So Jim, Ed, etc., let's hear why this excess capacity being planned for Vulcan/Centaur V is such a crappy idea.

It is different though. The potential engineering value of returning a booster for inspection is extremely high, since it can result in fixing a failure mode that saves a future billion dollar payload or prevent a stand-down and RTF costing hundreds of millions.

Excess margin is also valuable in case of an anomaly. A multi-engine upper stage would have engine-out redundancy and extra delta-v to insure against booster shortfalls like the DIVH first flight failure and OA-6 close call. Landing margins for a booster provide the same thing, but is also different because it can also enable reuse (the choice to reuse or not reuse isn't necessarily made before the flight).

Offline TrevorMonty

 ULA will use rideshare to make extra money from spare capacity. Depending on mission may add SRBs because of rideshare. In 2019 Astrobotics will fly as secondary on Atlas/Cynus mission, centuar does earth departure burn.

Giving rideshares to lunar robotic missions could be nice sideline. A more capable Centuar might even have endurance for TLI, giving nice boost to landed payload.

More capable US more options there are for using spare capacity.

 

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