First Vulcan Rocket Successfully Launches Civilian Lander to the Moon

The series of missions to the moon in 2024 will kick off in a big way with the first launch of the new Vulcan rocket. The launch, scheduled for January 8, will carry Astrobotic's Peregrine lander to the Moon as the first mission in NASA's ambitious Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) program.

Vulcan was manufactured by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Before SpaceX, ULA was the dominant force in the U.S. space launch business, but in recent years SpaceX has performed the majority of U.S. launches.

Vulcan could be an opportunity for ULA to regain some of its market share. This is particularly important for ULA as the company is currently up for sale. Potential buyers include Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company Blue Origin. If all goes well with this launch, six more aircraft are planned for launch in 2024.

The purpose of this launch is to transport the Peregrine lander to the lunar surface and back. If successful, it will be the first time a private company has successfully landed on the moon. The lander carries a variety of scientific instruments, including sensors to study lunar water and radiation on the lunar surface, both of which are key to understanding future human exploration. The CLPS program includes many other lunar exploration missions in the coming years that will take complementary measurements to prepare for the continued presence of humans on the lunar surface.

The rocket also carries two particularly controversial payloads. It's a capsule of human remains sent into space by a company called Celestis, which offers something called a “commemorative spaceflight.” One of these capsules contains the ashes of: Star Trek Author Gene Roddenberry and actors James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols will be sent into orbit around the sun, while another will contain the ashes of other humans bound for the moon.

Buu Nygren, the leader of the Navajo tribe, sent a letter In response to the U.S. government's opposition to loading the capsule, he stated, “Putting human remains on the moon is a grave desecration of this celestial body that our people revere.'' NASA responded that because this was a civilian mission, it had no authority over what payload it carried.