United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket lifted off of Pad SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force station at 2:18:38 EST this morning, with the rocket working in near-perfect fashion as it sent the Astrobiotics Peregrine lunar lander towards the moon and a Celestis memorial payload on its way to permanent solar orbit.
United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan rocket lifted off of Pad SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force station at 2:18:38 EST this morning, with the rocket working in near-perfect fashion as it sent the Astrobiotics Peregrine lunar lander towards the moon, and a Celestis memorial payload on its way to permanent solar orbit.
After a countdown with no apparent problems or issues, Vulcan lifted off right on time and flew off the launch pad. Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines worked as advertised, and coupled with GEM solid rocket boosters, the first stage hoisted the payload towards space flawlessly. The second stage was also up to its task, and performed two major burns on time and for their full duration.
At 3:17 am EST, Astrobiotics established communications with the Peregrine spacecraft, and now in space, Peregrine will continue on its journey to the moon and the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission can begin in earnest. While Astrobiotics work is just beginning, ULA and Blue Origin can take deep satisfaction in the first mission of Vulcan being an unqualified success.
Today’s launch marks the first successful orbital launch of the methalox-powered American rocket. Chinese company LandSpace successfully orbited the payload with its Zuque-2 rocket in July of 2023. The Relativity and SpaceX attempts were test flights, with no customer payloads aboard, while Vulcan will have at least two customers with assets on the first flight of Vulcan.
Vulcan is the first rocket designed wholly by United Launch Alliance. The Delta and Atlas family of rockets were legacy designs created by Boeing and Lockheed Martin respectively prior to the founding of the company in 2006. ULA is a joint venture between the two aerospace giants, and has successfully launched more than 155 missions since its inception.
United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced today that they have concluded their Launch Readiness Review for the maiden launch of their Vulcan rocket. The mission has been cleared to proceed to its planned liftoff at 2:18 am EST on Monday, January 8th.
ULA also added that the weather at liftoff time currently has only a 15% Probability of Violation at launch time, meaning that forecasters are calling for an 85% chance of acceptable launch conditions. The new rocket will carry the Astrobiotics Peregrine lunar lander built under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program and a secondary payload of memorials for Celestis.
When the inaugural launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan happens as soon as early next Monday morning, it will carry not only the Astrobiotic Peregrine lander towards the lunar surface, it will also have ashes of some of the actors whose portrayal of the crew of the fictional USS Enterprise that was integral to stoking the imaginations of many young people that in turn became engineers, scientists and technicians working in the real-life space program — as well as more than a few astronauts.
The mission is being organized by Texas-based Celestis, Inc., a company that has been providing memorial service launches for over twenty-five years, and will also carry other peoples’ remains and/or DNA on the trip.
Dubbed the “Enterprise Flight,” one-gram samples of the ashes of Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, as well as Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and visual-effects artist Douglas Trumbull will be launched into space in small capsules as secondary payloads that will continue to solar orbit after Vulcan’s primary mission of sending Peregrine on its way to the southern polar region of the moon has concluded. The Enterprise Flight will be re-named Enterprise Station once it reaches permanent heliocentric (around the sun) orbit.
Star Trek and NASA have a long and mutually beneficial relationship. While the original series aired in the 1960’s, NASA was working diligently to fulfill the goal of landing on the moon set by the late John F. Kennedy. Star Trek showed a potential future that almost seemed to be the logical timeline of the space program in those heady days, and the show’s cast was an inclusive one, with people of color, a key officer from Russia as well as women in key positions. The show’s tone was an optimistic one where humanity’s best side was what won the day, and where peaceful exploration of the heavens was the norm.
After the original run of the show ended, Nichols appeared in promotional films for NASA, recruiting women and people of color to apply to be astronauts. Up to that point, those with the “right stuff” were almost exclusively white men, mainly because the agency focused on hiring test pilots as astronaut candidates. There were very few test pilots of color, and even fewer women. With the dawn of the Shuttle era, NASA wanted its roster of astronauts to be more reflective of America at large, and to achieve that Nichols lent a hand by making promotional videos on behalf of the agency.
As for Star Trek, the show lived on, first in syndicated reruns, then movies and new series that continue to this day. It’s no understatement to say that it built an enduring modern myth and that it continues to have a huge effect on American and even global culture. Nichols, Doohan and the Roddenberry’s continued working on it until the 1990’s, and appeared at fan meetings long after that.
Nichelle Nichols Legacy
After her passing in 2022, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that “Nichelle Nichols was a trailblazing actress, advocate and dear friend to NASA. At a time when Black women were seldom seen on screen, Nichelle’s portrayal as Nyota Uhura on Star Trek held a mirror up to America that strengthened civil rights.”
He added at the time that “Nichelle’s advocacy transcended television and transformed NASA. After Apollo 11, Nichelle made it her mission to inspire women and people of color to join this agency, change the face of STEM and explore the cosmos. Nichelle’s mission is NASA’s mission. Today, as we work to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon under Artemis, NASA is guided by the legacy of Nichelle Nichols.”
Other Enterprise Flight Participants
DNA samples of Tory Bruno and his wife Rebecca — who is also a former Lockheed Martin rocket engineer that worked on the Trident II missile system. Tory is now the CEO of United Launch Alliance, the company who designed and built the Vulcan rocket to be used for this launch.
Author, pilot, media personality, raconteur and Space Coast legend Martin Caidin will also have a portion of his remains on the flight. Caidin was the author or coauthor of more than 50 books and over 1000 magazine articles. His book “Cyborg” was the inspiration for the 1970’s television series “The Six Million Dollar Man” starring Lee Majors.
Another participant will be Australian-born American astronaut Phillip Chapman. After he left NASA in 1972, Chapman’s career continued, as president of the L5 Society (now the National Space Society) were he was key in lobbying Congress during the 1980s which would have legally prevented American-based companies from commercial activities on the moon.
Those are just the famous names seen at first glance when looking through the Celestis roster for the flight. Many other lesser known names are also there, with many interesting personalities and loved ones being represented. Celestis will provide launch viewing opportunities for families and friends of the participants, as well as a three-day memorial service to celebrate their lives before liftoff.
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