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by woodandsteel 2148 days ago
When the ULA Vulcan was first announced, the plan was the engines, which are 90% of the cost of the first stage, would be recoverable and reusable. The idea was the engine section would detach from the rest of the rocket, fall a ways and then a parachute would open, and finally it would be caught mid-air by a helicopter. The idea was this would help it compete on price with the Falcon 9.

However, according to the Wikipedia article on Vulcan, this has not been funded, and so the rocket is going to be fully disposable.

1 comments

The Vulcan rocket has transitioned to using Blue Origins thrusters instead of inhouse development.

The first stage will be reusable (The Blue Shepherd launch vehicle from Blue Origin has now flown over 12 times, as of December using their BE-4 thrusters).

Vulcan is to be flown early next year.

The New Shepherd uses the BE-3.

The BE-4 the Vulcan will use has never flown.

ULA has never built a new launch system. Based on their track record early next year is optimistic.

ULA has no real plans for re-use, they’ve never even funded a test program for the SMART plan, and Blue Origin has never demonstrated propulsive landing capabilities for an orbital class booster.

The first stage is potentially reusable, but according to the Wikipedia article this has not been funded, so when it starts flying next year it will be expended. The thrusters are reusable, but you need a whole lot more than that. Maybe some time in the future it will be funded, or maybe not.