A brand-new rocket successfully debuted with a Sunday night liftoff from Florida, putting the program one step closure to its West Coast premiere as soon as next year.

The United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket lifted off at 11:18 p.m. from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

“I am so thrilled, I can’t tell you how much,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO and a Cal Poly graduate. 

“I am so proud of this team. Oh my gosh, this has been years of hard work. So far this has been an absolutely beautiful mission,” Bruno added.

The Cert-1 flight test carried two payloads — Peregrine Lunar Lander, Peregrine Mission One (PM1) for Astrobotic plus the Celestis Memorial Spaceflights Voyager mission known as the Enterprise Flight. 

Spoiling some of the excitement surrounding the successful debut, the lunar lander appears to be doomed by technical troubles.

Building on its heritage Atlas and Delta rocket families, ULA also employed new technologies in creating Vulcan, which sports American-made BE-4 engines manufactured by Blue Origin.

“The successful development and flight of this evolutionary rocket is a true testament to the unrivaled dedication and ingenuity of our workforce,” said Mark Peller, vice president of Vulcan Development.

“Vulcan’s purpose-built design leverages the best of what we’ve learned from more than 120 combined years of launch experience with Atlas and Delta, ultimately advancing our nation’s space capability and providing unprecedented mission flexibility.”

Sunday’s launch was the first of two certification flights required for the U.S. Space Force’s certification process, with the second, dubbed Cert-2, planned in the coming months, according to ULA. This summer, Vulcan will carry its first payload to support national security space.

Along with Florida, Vulcan eventually will launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, where work has started to ready a former Atlas launch facility for the new space booster.

Space Launch Complex-3 East has launched a variety of Atlas boosters including former missiles recycled to carry satellites plus the Atlas IIAS and the Atlas V rockets.

The West Coast’s final Atlas V rocket blasted off in November 2022, clearing the way for work to accommodate SLC-3E for Vulcan.

To ready for Atlas, crews will change the interfaces between the facility and the rocket to make them “Vulcan height” and “Vulcan diameter.” They also need to expand critical facilities for liquid oxygen and to install tanks for methane, the propellant used for Vulcan.

“All that’s underway right now,” Bruno said in mid-November, adding crews have been moving a lot of dirt and installing equipment to ready for Vulcan.

“All of that is on track and on schedule,” Bruno said in mid-November.

The first Vandenberg flight for Vulcan is targeting 2025, Bruno added.

ULA has sold more than 70 Vulcan launches to date, including 38 missions for Amazon’s Project Kuiper and multiple national security space launch missions.

The company’s plans call for a future bi-weekly launch rate and eventually recovering Vulcan engines for re-use.

While Vulcan met its many milestones, a glitch involving Peregrine put the lunar landing mission in peril. The mission is part of NASA‘s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative using companies to deliver science and technology payloads.

After achieving early on-orbit milestones, an anomaly occurred, preventing a stable sun-pointing orientation, which is key for keeping batteries charged.

“The team’s improvised maneuver was successful in reorienting Peregrine’s solar array towards the sun. We are now charging the battery,” Pittsburgh-based Astrobiotic said in a written statement. 

A Mission Anomaly Board continued to evaluate the data and assess the status of what they believe to be the root of the anomaly: a failure within the propulsion system, according to one of several timely statements released by Astrobotic.

“Unfortunately, it appears the failure within the propulsion system is causing a critical loss of propellant. The team is working to try and stabilize this loss, but given the situation, we have prioritized maximizing the science and data we can capture,” Astrobotic said.

Crews were assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible.

“We are grateful for the outpouring of support we’re receiving — from messages on social media to phone calls and helping hands. This is what makes the space industry so special, that we unite in the face of adversity. A heartfelt thank you from the entire Peregrine Mission One team.”