ULA 首次推出月球登陸器任務的火神火箭

The United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket should finally lift off for the first time next month. Can it compete with SpaceX?

A new rocket will soon take to the skies, the Vulcan.

聯合發射聯盟的火神半人馬座火箭最終將在下個月首次升空。它能與 SpaceX 競爭嗎？一種新型火箭 Vulcan 即將升空。

It’s the latest vehicle from the long-standing United Launch Alliance (ULA), which once held a near monopoly on military launches and planetary missions for NASA, but has since been usurped, and is now up for sale. ULA is hoping its new fleet of vehicles will offer healthy competition in today’s launch market.

它是歷史悠久的聯合發射聯盟 (ULA) 的最新運載工具，該聯盟曾經幾乎壟斷了 NASA 的軍事發射和行星任務，但後來被篡奪，現在正在出售。 ULA 希望其新車隊能夠在當今的上市市場中提供良性競爭。

There’s little doubt who the major player is right now. In 2023, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX launched 96 times, accounting for more than 90% of US orbital launches this year. Their Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets dominate the launch market and, if successful, their upcoming Starship rocket might surpass that mantle.

毫無疑問，現在的主要參與者是誰。 2023 年，馬斯克的公司 SpaceX 發射了 96 次，佔今年美國軌道發射的 90% 以上。他們的獵鷹 9 號和獵鷹重型火箭在發射市場上佔據主導地位，如果成功，他們即將推出的星艦火箭可能會超越這一地位。

ULA, however, has been ever-present in US launch for two decades, since forming as a merger between Boeing and Lockheed Martin in 2006. Its Atlas and Delta series of rockets have been used for a wide variety of government and commercial missions, with more than 150 launches over 17 years. Some notable highlights include the launch of NASA’s Perseverance rover to Mars in July 2020 and the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sampling mission launched in September 2016. Now the company is up for sale, with three bidders in the running — one of which is Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

然而，自 2006 年波音公司和洛克希德·馬丁公司合併成立以來，ULA 已經在美國發射領域持續存在了二十年之久。其 Atlas 和 Delta 系列火箭已廣泛用於各種政府和商業任務， 17 年來發布了150 多次。一些值得注意的亮點包括2020 年7 月向火星發射NASA 的毅力號火星車以及2016 年9 月啟動的OSIRIS-REx 小行星採樣任務。現在該公司正在出售，有三名競標者，其中之一是傑夫貝佐斯(Jeff Bezos) 的公司藍色起源。

Partly due to the dominance of SpaceX and a changing market, ULA has focused its efforts on a new rocket — Vulcan Centaur — these past few years. The company is phasing out both its Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, the last of those two fleets, with the inaugural launch of Vulcan set for next week. Unfortunately for ULA, the launch has been beset by delays. “It’s been a long time coming,” says Phil Smith, a space industry analyst at the US firm BryceTech.

部分由於 SpaceX 的主導地位和不斷變化的市場，ULA 在過去幾年將精力集中在一種新型火箭——Vulcan Centaur 上。該公司正在逐步淘汰阿特拉斯五號和德爾塔四號火箭，這是這兩支火箭中的最後一支，火神號的首次發射定於下週進行。不幸的是，對於 ULA 來說，發布一直受到延誤的困擾。美國 BryceTech 公司航太工業分析師菲爾史密斯 (Phil Smith) 表示：“這已經等了很長時間了。”

Vulcan was supposed to launch in 2019, but numerous issues have pushed back that date, including problems with the rocket’s oxygen and methane BE-4 engines, supplied by Blue Origin, with one engine exploding during a test in June. Those engines will ultimately end ULA’s reliance on the Russian built-engines used on its previous rockets, a partnership that ended following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Vulcan 原定於 2019 年發射，但由於許多問題推遲了該日期，其中包括藍色起源提供的火箭氧氣和甲烷 BE-4 發動機出現問題，其中一台發動機在 6 月的測試中發生爆炸。這些發動機將最終結束 ULA 對其先前火箭所使用的俄羅斯內置發動機的依賴，這種合作關係在俄羅斯 2014 年吞併克里米亞和 2022 年入侵烏克蘭後結束。

A two-stage rocket measuring 202 feet tall, Vulcan will be capable of lifting up to 60,000 pounds to orbit. Tory Bruno, ULA’s CEO, said in a press call on November 15 that Vulcan was “very highly optimized” for reaching high orbits, noting the rocket was “much more capable, much more affordable and has a lot of flexibility” compared to ULA’s previous rockets.

Vulcan 是一款高 202 英尺的兩級火箭，能夠將重達 60,000 磅的物體送入軌道。 ULA 首席執行官托里·布魯諾(Tory Bruno) 在11 月15 日的新聞發布會上表示，Vulcan 為到達高軌道進行了“非常高度優化”，並指出與ULA 之前的火箭相比，該火箭“能力更強、價格更實惠且具有很大的靈活性」火箭。

Signifying that is its first launch, known as the Cert-1 mission — it is one of two certification missions required to launch national security missions — which will liftoff from Cape Canaveral in Florida no earlier than January 8. The primary payload on board is the Peregrine lunar lander, a nearly 3,000-pound machine that will touch down on the Moon equipped with various instruments, built by the US firm Astrobotic Technology and partly funded by NASA. Also on board is a “memorial spacecraft” from the US firm Celestis, called Voyager, which will carry human DNA and ashes into orbit around the Sun.

這意味著這是它的首次發射，稱為Cert-1 任務，它是啟動國家安全任務所需的兩項認證任務之一，將於1 月8 日之前從佛羅裡達州卡納維拉爾角升空。機上的主要有效載荷是Peregrine 月球著陸器是一台重近 3,000 磅的機器，將在月球上著陸，配備各種儀器，由美國 Astrobotic Technology 公司建造，部分由 NASA 資助。船上還有一艘來自美國 Celestis 公司的“紀念飛船”，名為 Voyager，它將攜帶人類 DNA 和骨灰進入繞太陽軌道。

ULA’s ultimate goal is to launch two Vulcan rockets every month by the latter half of 2025, said Bruno. The rocket will not compete with SpaceX on reusability, with ULA opting only to attempt recovering and reusing the rocket’s first-stage engines, rather than the entire vehicle. However, according to Bruno, the rocket will still be competitive with SpaceX; it already has a “backlog of 70 Vulcan launches” over the next five years worth billions of dollars, including customers such as Amazon, which has booked multiple Vulcan launches to fly satellites for its Project Kuiper space internet mega constellation to rival SpaceX’s Starlink.

布魯諾表示，ULA 的最終目標是到 2025 年下半年每月發射兩枚火神火箭。該火箭不會在可重複使用性方面與 SpaceX 競爭，ULA 選擇僅嘗試回收和重複使用火箭的第一級發動機，而不是整個火箭。不過，布魯諾表示，該火箭仍將與 SpaceX 競爭；該公司已經在未來五年內“積壓了70 次Vulcan 發射”，價值數十億美元，其中包括亞馬遜等客戶，該公司已預訂多次Vulcan 發射，為其柯伊伯項目太空互聯網巨型星座發射衛星，與SpaceX的星鍊相媲美。

“The global launch industry has changed its character in the last 18 months,” said Bruno. “There’s more demand for launch than there are global launch vehicles available to do it, partly because of the withdrawal of Russia, and also because of the introduction of these mega constellations.”

「過去 18 個月裡，全球發射產業的性質發生了變化，」布魯諾說。 “發射的需求比全球可用的運載火箭還要多，部分原因是俄羅斯的退出，也因為這些巨型星座的引入。”

Phil Smith believes the rocket can be competitive “but a couple of things need to happen” before that is the case. “One is it has to work,” he says. “Then it will prove itself out in the contracts that it’s got.” While ULA is unlikely to be able to compete with SpaceX on price, currently around $2,000 per kilogram for Musk’s company, additional factors such as reliability will be important. “There are other ways to evaluate competitiveness,” says Smith. “Customers don’t just look at pricing. Maybe Starship will be too much bang for your buck. Maybe you prefer the Vulcan Centaur for a particular mission type.”

菲爾史密斯相信火箭可以具有競爭力，「但在此之前需要發生一些事情」。「一是它必須有效，」他說。 “然後它將在它所獲得的合約中證明自己。”雖然 ULA 不太可能在價格上與 SpaceX 競爭，目前馬斯克公司的價格約為每公斤 2,000 美元，但可靠性等其他因素也很重要。「還有其他方法來評估競爭力，」史密斯說。 “客戶不僅僅關注價格。也許星際飛船對你來說太划算了。也許您更喜歡使用火神半人馬來執行特定的任務類型。”

“Havingthat mixofvehicles isimportant.”

ULA’s long-standing success in launching rockets might also play a part and could be a key selling point to one of its potential suitors.

「擁有這種混合車輛很重要。」ULA 在發射火箭方面的長期成功也可能發揮一定作用，並可能成為其潛在追求者之一的關鍵賣點。

“If I were buying a space business, I’d go look at ULA,” Bruno told Bloomberg in an interview in October. “It’s already had all the hard work done through the transformation. You’re not buying a Victorian with bad plumbing. It’s all been done. You’re coming in at the end of the remodel, so you can focus on your future.”

「如果我要購買太空業務，我會去看看 ULA，」布魯諾在 10 月接受彭博社採訪時說道。「轉型過程中的所有艱苦工作已經完成。你不會買一個管道很差的維多利亞時代的房子。一切都已經完成了。你將在改造結束後進來，這樣你就可以專注於你的未來。”

All eyes will be on next week's Vulcan launch and any impact it might have on a potential sale. Having once dominated the US launch market, ULA is now undoubtedly playing catchup to SpaceX and will hope Vulcan can be its new poster child as it seeks to reestablish itself as a major player. Doing so is beneficial not just to ULA, but for American launch as a whole, too.

所有的目光都將集中在下週的 Vulcan 發布以及它對潛在銷售可能產生的任何影響。 ULA 曾經在美國發射市場佔據主導地位，現在無疑正在追趕 SpaceX，並希望 Vulcan 能夠成為其新的典型代表，以重新確立自己作為主要參與者的地位。這樣做不僅對 ULA 有利，而且對整個美國的發射也有利。

“We’re always excited when a new vehicle comes online,” says Smith. “We need competition.”

「當新車上線時，我們總是很興奮，」史密斯說。 “我們需要競爭。”

Track the maiden flight of ULA's Vulcan rocket with Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander by downloading the Supercluster App for iPhone and Android.

下載適用於 iPhone 和 Android 的 Supercluster 應用程序，追蹤 ULA 的 Vulcan 火箭與 Astrobotic 的 Peregrine 月球著陸器的首次飛行。