From the launch pad in Florida, the Vulcan rocket rose to the top of a powerful pillar of fire on Monday morning Norwegian time. The fire came from the engines BE-4. They are American. This means that the last vestige of Russia has been removed from the US space program. Vulcan replaces the Atlas rocket. It used the Russian RD-180 engine. The Americans started using the Russian engine when the Cold War ended. The dependence on the Russians was something that many American politicians thought was problematic. Especially after the Russians occupied Crimea. The Atlas rocket was used, among other things, to send military payloads into space. In 2014, development began on the new rocket that would use American engines. It is the company ULA that will now use Vulcan. ULA is a merger of the space activities of the giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin. BUILT IN THE USA: The two BE-4 engines in the bottom of the Vulcan rocket. They replace the Russian RD-180 engines. Photo: ULA Going to the moon The first launch of a new rocket is usually a demonstration of its capacity. It’s pretty much this launch as well, but it’s carrying a craft that’s going to the moon. It is the lunar lander Peregrine, the “Peregrine Falcon”, which is on top of the new rocket. The vessel has been developed by the private company Astrobotic. It carries a variety of payloads. Among other things, two small robot vehicles. The payloads come from the USA, Germany and Mexico. The falcon also carries a number of small “time capsules” to the surface of the moon. The capsules contain everything from cryptocurrency to poems. LITTLE TASS: The moon lander Peregrine is not much bigger than a human, but if the landing goes well, the Americans are back on the moon. Photo: Astrobotics The Falcon will first enter orbit around the moon, before it is scheduled to land on 23 February. It is a relatively small vessel, with a mass of approximately 1,300 kilograms. If this part of the plan goes well, this will be the first American landing on the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. Dead people The Vulcan rocket also carried a small and somewhat special payload. It was a capsule with parts of the ashes of cremated people. It is the company Celestis that offers this type of funeral. The capsule is now in an orbit around the Sun and can circle our star for many thousands of years. One of the dead who is represented with a few grams of their ashes is the Norwegian-born woman Kay Ann Heggestad. She died in 2017. Celestis’ plan was to send the ashes to the moon. It led to an uproar. The indigenous Navaho people complained to the US authorities. They believe the moon is sacred ground, and that spreading ashes from people there is not a good action. IN ORBIT AROUND THE SUN: A few grams of Kay Ann Heggestad’s ashes were on the first trip to the new Vulcan rocket. Photo: Celestis New, but old In the ten years it has taken to develop the new rocket, a lot has happened in space travel. The company SpaceX has become the overall dominant player. Elon Musk’s company sent nearly a hundred rockets into space last year. SpaceX did that with the Falcon 9 rocket. It is reusable. It’s not the new Vulcan rocket. Vulcan is now scrap on the seabed after the first voyage. This makes this system very expensive for customers. American authorities nevertheless believe that the rocket fulfills an important role. Now the Americans have two options to get heavy payloads into space. This means that they are not locked to the ground if one of the systems, Vulcan or Falcon, fails.
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