The United Launch Alliance, a longtime government spacelift provider, has an incremental plan to upgrade its Centaur V upper stage to fly long-duration space missions.
The Centaur V powers the company’s new Vulcan rocket, which is on the verge of being certified to fly national security missions. The upper stage of a rocket is used to propel a payload further into space after the initial booster has separated. The Centaur V was designed to be more than twice as powerful as its predecessor and to remain in orbit for as long as 12 hours.
ULA CEO Tory Bruno told reporters Thursday the company’s longer-term vision is for the Centaur V to eventually be able to remain in space for days or longer. The fast-moving vehicle would be highly maneuverable and could be used to relocate satellites or for counterspace missions.
In a Dec. 4 Medium post, Bruno fleshed out his concept for the Centaur V to function as an in-space mobility platform, or a “Greyhound.” In one scenario, he described the system loitering in orbit, ready to thwart an adversary’s attempts to target a Space Force asset.
“That becomes a very powerful deterrent,” he said Thursday on the sidelines of the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Fla.
The company has an incremental plan to get to this “lightning fast, long range, lethal if necessary” Centaur V through regular upgrades to the existing system. The modifications would happen annually, or perhaps on a more frequent cadence, and then validated on flights of its Vulcan rocket.
“There are several things that, as you put them all there, they incrementally extend that life and capability,” Bruno said. “And at the end of all of that you have the ultimate objective for duration that we intend to have.”
ULA’s plan for its Centaur V is shaped by several variables. The company’s largest competitor, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has the highest annual launch rate and has embraced new concepts for reusability and rocket cargo transport via its behemoth Starship rocket. Concepts like upper stage mobility could expand ULA’s portfolio.
It’s also informed by a changing threat environment in space — one that Space Force officials have said requires mobile satellites and spacecraft that bring more thrust and can potentially be refueled in orbit. These maneuvering vehicles could be used to observe potential adversary activity and respond if needed.
The head of U.S. Space Command, Gen. Stephen Whiting, reiterated that message Wednesday, telling reporters the service needs a system that can maneuver through space without fuel constraints.
“We need some kind of capability to be maneuverable in the space domain and not be confined to only operating with the fuel, the propellant we were launched with,” he said on the sidelines of the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Fla. “We want to operate until the mission is finished, not until the fuel we were launched with runs out.”
Bruno said on Medium that he views a capability like what ULA is mapping out for Centaur V as key to the Space Force’s strategy for defending against aggression from China and Russia. While much of the service’s focus has been on making sure its architecture — the satellites and ground systems it relies on to provide space capabilities to other military users — is resilient against adversary attacks, he suggested that only addresses one piece of the problem.
“The ability to take a few punches and keep on communicating and watching is necessary, but insufficient,” Bruno said. “Resiliency alone will not stop or limit an attack.”
Mobility, he said, needs to be part of the equation.
“I don’t mean the ability to move the assets we are trying to protect,” he wrote. “That is useful and a part of resiliency. I mean a squadron of lightning fast, long range, lethal interceptors.”
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
