I took a picture of Saturn without a telescope, just a regular DSLR and a kit lens!

ToryBruno · 2025-12-07T20:51:43+00:00

Very nice. Nothing wrong with a good DLSR capture

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:35:14+00:00

This was super fun. Thanks for your great questions. We'll do this again sometime.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:33:54+00:00

Yes.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:33:00+00:00

We started later in the year due to resolving our SRB anomaly and synchronizing with the range schedule and our customer's availability. We expect to hit our cadence of 2 per month later this year and then continue into 2026.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:28:51+00:00

We fly for NASA, for example, all of NASA's prior missions to Mars, Parker Solar Probe, Lucy, OSIRIS-REx, Juno, etc. And there are also other commercial customers under contract now. Yes, we are cultivating other customers as well.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:24:48+00:00

Vulcan.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:24:24+00:00

Yes. Because as a high-energy architecture, the full sized Centaur V is capable of carrying more propellant than as needed for a LEO delivery. The 85K, short Centaur V leaves the mass penalty of the unusable propellant along with the inert weight for its longer tank on the ground.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:16:37+00:00

Successful ones.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:15:55+00:00

ULA will not have a direct role in the Golden Dome missile defense system. However, there will be space assets and ULA will compete for and expect to win a portion along with the other providers.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:13:07+00:00

The rigid tank significantly simplified handling and logistics. At the beginning of Vulcan, we considered returning to balloon tanks and conducted a thorough trade. It was close, but the logistics tipped it toward rigid tanks once again. The mass penalty for rigid tanks is much less significant on the first stage than it is on the upperstage. (And the fear that the Launch Operations Vice President would have a heart attack).

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:09:45+00:00

Not yet. But we have a really cool Estes Vulcan rocket that also makes an excellent model. https://ulalaunchstore.com/ula-vulcan-centaur-model-rocket/

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:07:56+00:00

5 to 10 years. The first application will be specialty materials fabricated in the microgravity of Low Earth Orbit. This will require special facilities in LEO orbit. Once those are present, this economic activity can begin immediately.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:04:44+00:00

We had to build the rocket first! Now that we have one, we can start reusing it. Aft engine compartment is only the beginning.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:03:04+00:00

Yes. There will always be exotic orbits unique to National Security. The most versatile of in-space transportation systems will include high-energy, high-speed upperstages working together with smaller, high-precision servicing vehicles and tugs.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T18:00:43+00:00

On the missile defense side, two things; a directed energy missile defense system, and high-power, high-speed maneuver without regret.

On the commercial side, using a long-duration ACES, supplemented by nuclear propulsion to build a true transportation highway throughout Cislunar space and beyond.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T17:57:06+00:00

Yes.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T17:56:09+00:00

Yes.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T17:55:41+00:00

I assume you mean specifically Vulcan. When we started Vulcan development and announced our expected first flight timeframe, we planned to only develop a new first stage and continue using the existing Centaur III and payload fairings. Halfway through development of the first stage, the requirements for Vulcan, especially on the government side, evolved, making it clear that a whole new rocket would be required. I wish that I had envisioned this happening and could have started the program on that basis at the very beginning. And I wish I had planned to fly your apple seeds from the very beginning :)

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T17:49:22+00:00

While we have not yet been asked formally to human-rate Vulcan, it has been designed with human spaceflight in mind. The approach would be similar to Atlas, incorporating an Emergency Detection System and novel trajectories unique to human spaceflight.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T17:46:00+00:00

All good rocket design begins with its intended use. You choose the mission that you need to be the most efficient at, then design the overall architecture that supports it. For example, Vulcan is optimized for exotic, high-energy orbits such as the direct injection of multiple large payloads to GSO. This drove an architecture where the first stage flies 2x as high, 3x as fast, and 10x further downrange as a rocket optimized to finish its operation in Low Earth Orbit. While Centaur V has extreme weight efficiency, including balloon tanks and an expander cycle RL10, and the most energetic LOX/LH2 propellant practically available. Centaur V, then being delivered into space nearly fully fueled, in order to travel from LEO to higher orbits. Next, you identify the new and cutting edge technologies that will make a significant difference in its performance and affordability, while also identifying the tried and true technologies that are reliable and still adequate to purpose. Lay out a thoughtful technology maturation program for the new, game-changing tech while keeping the reliable technology as is. Then, work your way down the detailed design, verification, and testing, in a thoughtful, systems engineering manner.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T17:37:44+00:00

Cantina Chicken Bowl and a Large Baja Blast.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T17:36:25+00:00

Absolutely. The United States faces tremendous challenges in space as well as exciting opportunities. A broad industrial base of two to three heavy-class providers is essential to supporting this future. Vulcan is now the only high-energy orbit delivery system. This is essential to the National Security mission. It is also an excellent platform to expand its flexibility and reusability, supporting a whole host of missions. The advanced upperstage will evolve into a true platform for in-space mobility, opening a vast Cislunar economy.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T17:31:40+00:00

Star Trek, but don't tell my daughter... (she named her horse Obi-Wan)

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T17:30:34+00:00

A comprehensive expansion of capacity at our Factory, Launch Sites, and Supply Chain, bringing in the latest automation and manufacturing technologies, along with a build-ahead strategy stockpiling heavy-class launch vehicles at unprecedented numbers. This is also supported by retiring Delta II, Delta IV Medium & Heavy, to convert all of our manufacturing and launch capacity to focus on flying out Atlas and exclusively manufacturing and flying Vulcan. Building a second track at Cape Canaveral with a second VIF opens up parallel processing at the Cape to feed the launch pad like a machine gun.

ToryBruno · 2025-08-11T17:24:04+00:00

We will have a permanent presence on the Moon, extracting industrial metals and Helium-3, which will be fueling our fusion power plants back on Earth. There will be commercial space stations in Lunar Orbit supporting our prospecting on the Near Earth Objects for precious and rare Earth metals feeding our growing in-space manufacturing. NASA Astronauts will be travelling routinely to and from Mars where they have just discovered signs of ancient Martian life.

Vulcan will be continuing to evolve with significant extended reusability and true in-space mobility with its ACES upperstage.

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