The first Vulcan rocket launch will carry a private lander to the moon

The flurry of missions to the moon in 2024 is starting big with the first launch of the new Vulcan rocket.

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The launch, planned for 8 January, will carry Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander to the moon in the first mission of NASA’s ambitious Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme.

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Vulcan was built by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), a collaboration between Boeing and and Lockheed Martin.

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Prior to the arrival of SpaceX on the scene, ULA was a dominant force in the US space launch business, but in recent years SpaceX has performed the majority of US launches.

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Vulcan could be ULA’s opportunity to snatch back some of that market share, which is particularly important for it because the company is now for sale.

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Potential buyers include Jeff Bezos’s space flight company Blue Origin, among others. If all goes well with this launch, there are six more planned for 2024.

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