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

The 200-foot Vulcan Centaur rocket did more than launch satellites into orbit. As the rocket awaits certification to launch military payloads, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) suggests the Vulcan could also be used to repel space adversaries and protect US assets in orbit.

ULA CEO Tory Bruno during the Spacepower Conference earlier this month revealed he has alternative plans for a heavy-lift launch vehicle called SpaceNews informed. Bruno’s proposal involves using the rocket’s upper stage as a “space interceptor” to deter attacks on US Space Force assets in space. “Our vision is the ability to have a platform that is lightning fast, long-range and, if necessary, very lethal,” he said. “What I’m working on is actually a rocket that works in space.”

Well, that’s certainly an opinion. The 202-foot-tall (61.6-meter) Vulcan Centaur is an expendable heavy-lift jet carrier first developed in 2006. The rocket takes design cues from both ULA’s Atlas V and Delta IV rockets and finally debuted in January. 8, activation Astrobotic’s Peregrine Landing to the Moon. It was the first flight of the rocket originally planned It’s set to take place in 2019, but Vulcan has run into a series of problems and hiccups that have delayed its big day.

Vulcan Centauri is critical to the commercial space industry and US national security. ULA hopes to compete with industry favorite SpaceX with its Vulcan rocket. The US military has grown it depends more A market share previously dominated by ULA for SpaceX to launch its own payload into orbit.

However, the Vulcan is not yet ready to launch military payloads. Rocket performed the second certificate flight In October, however, ULA’s tentacle vehicle hit a snag. Rocket after nominal flight experienced one issue, about 35 seconds after powering up, was that a plume of material suddenly appeared from one of its two boosters.

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

Bruno’s recent proposal to turn the rocket into a space superhero may be an act of desperation as ULA continues to lag behind arch-rival SpaceX. During the conference, ULA’s CEO suggested that Vulcan’s upper stage could be upgraded to serve as a long-lived vehicle that operates in space and responds rapidly to incoming threats.

“We know the Chinese will come after us in space,” Bruno told SpaceNews. “If we’re watching an attack where a Chinese asset spends a few days or a week getting close to something we’re interested in, we have something that we can move there in a few hours and stop the attack before it starts.”

Celebrating China’s growing capabilities in space is one way to get people behind your plan. Still, Bruno’s remarks reflect a larger concern shared by both national and commercial spaceflight players: that space is heading toward a militarized future in which orbital warfare may be inevitable.