America’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket will make its first flight on Christmas Eve, announced the United Launch Alliance (ULA), an industry group whose mission is to advance the United States’ lunar ambitions.

The rocket will carry a lunar lander from the American company Astrobotic, which could become the first private company to successfully land on the moon.

The mission, called Cert-1, will also carry the ashes of some deceased people, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and his wife. Previously, Roddenberry’s ashes had already been sent into space.

The launch is scheduled for Dec. 24 from the US Space Force launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida, United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced Tuesday evening.

• Read also: The Vulcan rocket will carry the DNA of four American presidents and the ashes of five characters from the Star Trek universe into outer space

Vulcan Centaur is a “new generation” rocket.

United Launch Alliance is a joint venture between two giants: Lockheed Martin, which created the Atlas family of launch vehicles, culminating in the Atlas V, and Boeing, which created the Delta family, from which we still have the Delta IV and Delta today. IV Heavy (the latter was once the most powerful active rocket before being supplanted by the Falcon Heavy).

With the inauguration of Vulcan, the United Launch Alliance is entering a new era: it will have one orbital launcher instead of three, which can be configured for different types of missions using GEM-63XL liquid-propellant boosters. (production of Northrop Grumman).

“In 2024, we will fly several times,” promised the group’s chief executive Tory Bruno in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. And “when we get to mid-2025, we’ll be launching every two weeks,” he assured, adding that the next rockets are “already being built” to ensure that pace.

Before the first launch in late December, the rocket’s upper stage still needs to be transported to Florida and tested, Tory Bruno said.

According to him, in case of delays or adverse weather conditions, other launch options are possible on December 25 and 26 or in January.

Astrobotic’s lunar module, named Peregrine, could become the first American lunar module to land on the moon since the Apollo program ended in 1972.

A startup based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (East) has received funding from NASA to develop a lunar module that will carry the American space agency’s scientific instruments.

However, NASA also signed a contract with Intuitive Machines, whose lunar lander is slated to take off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in mid-November.

In the spring, the Japanese startup ispace already tried to become the first private company to land on the moon, but the mission ended in an accident.

India successfully landed on the moon in August in a government mission.

Japan’s Jaxa space agency also launched a lunar mission in September, with a lunar modulator scheduled to land in early 2024.

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