"ULA's Vulcan Centaur Debut: Launching a New Era of Commercial Lunar Missions"

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is set to launch its new Vulcan Centaur rocket on January 8, 2024, carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander as part of NASA's Artemis program. The Vulcan rocket, which will replace the Delta IV and Atlas V rockets, is ULA's first new launch vehicle since 2006 and features BE-4 engines developed by Blue Origin. Despite a setback with a Centaur V upper stage test article being destroyed during a test, the mission is proceeding with a replacement Centaur V stage. The inaugural flight will also carry payloads for scientific experiments on the Moon and a Celestis Memorial Spaceflight capsule containing cremated remains and DNA samples, including those of Star Trek legends.