Decatur, Alabama – United Launch Alliance rocket factory in the deep South has been plugging away at the new Vulcan airframe. We finally get our first glimpse of the new rocket as the liquid propellant tank for the new upper stage “Centaur V” has been completed. Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA is active on Twitter stating the new facts about this new stage including his reply “Pretty Think” in regards to the tanks structure.
This new structure is sheet stainless steel which is manufactured to less than the thickness of a dime. While it boasts a 17.7 ft width, and 41.4 ft height, this is a huge performance increase with the weight to thrust ratio of Vulcan, as well as Centaur’s performance after leaving the atmosphere. For reference, a sectional view of the Vulcan can be seen below:
This tank Tory Bruno refers to will have the responsibility of feeding liquid hydrogen in part with liquid oxygen in a separate tank to both the RL-10 rocket engines.
