United Launch Alliance is expected to reveal its design for a next generation satellite launcher Monday, outlining a 20-year roadmap to develop a new methane-powered first stage booster, an advanced space tug and a reusable rocket engine.
The nation’s existing Atlas and Delta launch sites are vying for a future when United Launch Alliance completes its modernization with a new rocket system and downsizing to one pad on each coast.
Fans of classical mythology and the fictional Star Trek universe can vote for two new candidates as the name of United Launch Alliance’s next generation rocket, with Vulcan and Zeus joining three other options in an online poll revealed earlier this week.
Eagle? Freedom? GalaxyOne? United Launch Alliance wants public input in the naming of a next-generation launcher designed to replace the historic Atlas and Delta rocket lines in the 2020s.
With as few as 15 more launches on the calendar over the next five years, the rocket name “Delta” that has been serving the U.S. and international customers since 1960 could permanently fade into history.