ULA wants to make its missile “lethal” to defend US assets in space

The 200-foot-tall Vulcan Centaur rocket can do more than just launch satellites into orbit. While the rocket awaits certification to launch military payloads, United Launch Alliance (ULA) suggests Vulcan could also be used to ward off space enemies and protect US assets in orbit.

During the Space Energy Conference held earlier this month, ULA CEO Torey Bruno said open That he had alternative plans for the SpaceNews Heavy launch vehicle I mentioned. Bruno’s proposal involves using the rocket’s upper stage as a “space interceptor” to thwart attacks against U.S. Space Force assets in space. “Our vision is to be able to have a platform that is very fast, very long-range, and very lethal if necessary,” he said during the conference. “What I’ve been working on is basically a rocket that works in space.”

Well, that’s definitely an idea. The 202-foot (61.6 m) Vulcan Centaur is an expendable heavy launch vehicle first designed in 2006. The rocket borrows design elements from ULA’s Atlas V and Delta IV rockets and finally debuted on January 8, release Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander towards the Moon. It was the rocket’s inaugural flight Originally scheduled Scheduled for 2019, Vulcan faced many challenges and setbacks that delayed his big day.

Vulcan Centaur is critical to the commercial space industry as well as U.S. national security. With its Vulcan rocket, ULA hopes to compete with industry favorite SpaceX. The US Army has grown More dependent SpaceX has to launch its payload into orbit, a market share that was once dominated by ULA.

However, Vulcan is not yet ready to launch military payloads. The missile carried out its second round Certification journey In October, but ULA’s flight vehicle hit a snag. After the nominal take-off of the rocket Experienced A problem occurred about 35 seconds after launch, when a plume of material suddenly appeared shooting from one of its boosters.

The main purpose of the Cert-2 mission was for the US Space Force to certify Vulcan for national security missions, with the rocket scheduled to carry two US military payloads into orbit this year. The imperfect flight delayed the missile’s certification process.

Bruno’s latest proposal to turn the rocket into a space superhero may be an act of desperation as ULA continues to lag behind its main competitor, SpaceX. During the conference, ULA’s CEO suggested that the Vulcan upper stage could be upgraded to serve as a long-endurance spacecraft that responds quickly to incoming threats.

“We know the Chinese will come after us in space,” Bruno said, according to SpaceNews. “If we see an attack developing where a Chinese asset spends a few days or a week getting close to something we care about, we have something we can get there in a few hours and stop that attack before it starts.”

Mentioning China’s growing capabilities in space is one way to attract people to your plan. However, Bruno’s statements reflect a larger concern shared by both national and commercial spaceflight players: that space is headed toward a militarized future in which orbital warfare may be inevitable.