ULA Works On Recoverable Engines For Vulcan Launch System | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-12.01.25

AirborneNextGen-
11.18.25

Airborne-Unlimited-11.19.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-11.20.25

AirborneUnlimited-11.21.25

LIVE MOSAIC Town Hall (Archived): www.airborne-live.net

Sat, Mar 03, 2018

ULA Works On Recoverable Engines For Vulcan Launch System

Company Says System Should Fly In Mid 2020s

The Vulcan launch system being developed by United Launch Alliance will have something in common with rockets being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin ... the boosters are intended to be recoverable, according to the company.

Business Insider reports that the Vulcan will have detachable first stage booster engines called SMART, for Sensible, Modular, Autonomous Return Technology. ULA CEO Tory Bruno said that the system would allow ULA to "recover about two-thirds the cost of that first-stage booster every single time we fly with no performance hit."

The "performance hit" he's referring to is the additional fuel that must be carried by a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy booster to allow the rocket to land, costing the company in payload. The SMART system would detach the rocket engine from the booster and deploy a heat shield to protect it during reentry, and then a parafoil would slow the engine package down enough to allow it to be snagged from the air by a helicopter.

ULA expects the first flight of the Vulcan to be in 2019. It is also developing a system called ACES, for Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage. ACES is a second stage that uses cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen rather than RP-1 kerosene as fuel. The kerosene can freeze after only a few hours in space, but the ACES second stage could remain viable in orbit for years, and even eventually be refueled. A timeline released by ULA indicates that the ACES second stage could fly as soon as 2023, with the SMART engine recovery system launched as soon as 2024.

(Image provided by ULA)

FMI: Original report

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (11.28.25): Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) An unmanned aircraft and its associated elements related to safe operations, which may include control stations (ground, ship, or air based), control>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (11.28.25)

Aero Linx: Cactus Fly-In The Classic Airplane Association of Arizona, Inc. (CAAA) was incorporated in Arizona as a not for profit corporation on January 10, 2014. The CAAA roster i>[...]

Airborne 11.21.25: NTSB on UPS Accident, Shutdown Protections, Enstrom Update

Also: UFC Buys Tecnams, Emirates B777-9 Buy, Allegiant Pickets, F-22 And MQ-20 The NTSB's preliminary report on the UPS Flight 2976 crash has focused on the left engine pylon's sep>[...]

Airborne 11.26.25: Bonanza-Baron Fini, Archer v LA NIMBYs, Gogo Loses$$$

Also: Bell 505 on SAF, NYPA Gets Flak For BizAv 'Abuse', FAA Venezuela Caution, Horizon Update Textron Aviation has confirmed it will be ending production of the Beechcraft Bonanza>[...]

Airborne-NextGen 11.25.25: EHang Manned Flt, Army UAVs, Starship V3 Booster Boom

Also: FedEx SAF, Archer Midnight Powertrain Tech, Rocket Lab Record, Perseverance Rover Find EHang has logged a major milestone in the development of its pilotless air taxi, loggin>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC


Debugging Information
ColdFusion Server Enterprise 2023,0,16,330828
Template /index.cfm
Time Stamp 02-Dec-25 12:17 AM
Locale English (US)
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
Remote IP 10.0.20.1
Host Name 10.0.20.1


Execution Time

Total Time Avg Time Count Template
88 ms 88 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/parsed/main.textpost.cfm
88 ms 88 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onRequest(/index.cfm) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
43 ms 43 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryTextPost.cfm
27 ms 27 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/actTextPost.cfm
4 ms 4 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/actWidgets.cfm
4 ms 4 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onRequestStart(/index.cfm) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
3 ms 3 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspWidgets.cfm
2 ms 2 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/display/dspTextPost.cfm
2 ms 2 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspBannerAds.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fusebox.init.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryNewscats.cfm
1 ms 1 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onRequestEnd(/index.cfm) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
1 ms 1 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc | tagstripper(<h2>Company Says System Should Fly In Mid 2020s</h2>

The Vulcan launch system being developed by United Launch Alliance will have something in common with rockets being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin ... the boosters are intended to be recoverable, according to the company.

) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc
1 ms 1 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | compileRequest(main.textpost, CFC: fckeditor.fb551.fusebox5.myFusebox) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/CustomTags/bph/QuerySim.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/cftags/sharelinks.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/comments/actDisqus.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/actFooter.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryAnnouncements.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryAudio.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/model/main/qryWidVideo.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/comments/dspDisqus.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/display/dspAnnouncements.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspNewscats.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/dspSidebar.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/layAnnNew.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_234BannerZone.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_admin.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_flashAd.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_podcasts.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_search.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_today.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/view/layout/widgets/widget_topvideos.cfm
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc | onSessionStart() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/Application.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 13 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc | RandomNumber() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/components/utils.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxAction.cfc | getAccess() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxAction.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | expandFuseboxPath(parsed/) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 2 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | getCoreToAppRootPath() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc | getVersion() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxApplication.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxEvent.cfc | init([complex value], [complex value], CFC: fckeditor.fb551.fusebox5.myFusebox) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/fuseboxEvent.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 2 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | getMyself() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | getSelf() ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | init(fusebox, [complex value], [complex value]) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
0 ms 0 ms 1 CFC[ C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc | trace(Fusebox, Request completed) ] from C:/inetpub/wwwroot/clients/aero-news.net/fb551/fusebox5/myFusebox.cfc
4 ms  STARTUP, PARSING, COMPILING, LOADING, & SHUTDOWN
97 ms  TOTAL EXECUTION TIME
red = over 250 ms average execution time


SQL Queries

post (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=42ms, Records=1) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryTextPost.cfm @ 00:17:34.034
SELECT
	cb.ContentBlockID as id,
	cb.ContentBlockName as title,
	cb.Display,
	ct.DisplayTemplate,
	cb.HTMLContent as description,
	cb.ForumCode,
	cb.Icon,
	convert(varchar(20), cb.Display, 111) AS GroupDate,
	t.TeaserText as teaser,
	cb.SortOrder
FROM
	vwContentBlock cb INNER JOIN ContentType ct
	ON cb.ContentTypeCode = ct.ContentTypeCode
	LEFT OUTER JOIN Teaser t
	ON cb.ContentBlockID = t.ContentBlockID AND t.TeaserType <> 'L'
WHERE
	cb.ContentBlockID = ?
	AND Status IN ('60','80') AND (Display <{ts '2025-12-02 00:17:34'} OR Display IS NULL)
Query Parameter Value(s) -
Parameter #1(CF_SQL_varchar) = E8EB408D-C77D-48C8-B3CF-3E7A319C90B5

GetAnnouncements (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=1, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryAnnouncements.cfm @ 00:17:34.034
SELECT HTMLContent
FROM ContentBlockLive
WHERE ContentBlockKey = 'ANNOUNCE' 
	AND Status = 60 
	AND ((Display <{ts '2025-12-02 00:00:00'} OR Display IS NULL) 
	AND (Expire > {ts '2025-12-02 00:00:00'} OR Expire IS NULL))
qryAudio (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=0, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryAudio.cfm @ 00:17:34.034
SELECT NewID() as id,
	CAST(episodesid AS VARCHAR(38)) as myid,
	title,
	CAST(subtitle  AS Varchar(800)) as teaser, 
	CAST(summary AS Varchar(2000)) as description,
	ApprovedDate as published,
	episodefile as filelocation, 
	podcastsid as categoryid,
	CAST('audio' AS char(8)) as mytype,
	ApprovedDate as GroupDate,
	SPACE(2) AS previewimage,
	0 AS sortorder
FROM episodes
	WHERE Approved = 1 
		
	AND ApprovedDate <{ts '2025-12-02 00:00:00'} ANd ApprovedDate > {ts '2025-11-28 00:00:00'} 

Order By published DESC, sortorder DESC
qryWidVideo (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=3, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryWidVideo.cfm @ 00:17:34.034
SELECT TOP 3
videoId as id, 
	convert(varchar(38), videoId) as myid, 
	title, 
	CAST(description AS Varchar(2000)) as description, 
	Cast(teaser AS Varchar(800))as teaser,
	published,
	filelocation, 
	categoryid,
	CAST('video' AS char(8)) as mytype,
	published as GroupDate,
	previewimage,
	0 AS sortorder
	
FROM Videos
WHERE active = 1 AND approved = 1 AND published <{ts '2025-12-02 00:00:00'} 
ORDER BY published DESC
widgetsorted (Datasource=, Time=3ms, Records=6) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\actWidgets.cfm @ 00:17:34.034
SELECT *
	FROM qryWidgets
	WHERE wname IN('flashAd','today','search','podcasts','topvideos','adsection234')
	ORDER By sortorder
NewsCategories (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=7, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryNewscats.cfm @ 00:17:34.034
SELECT 
			ContentTypeName, ContentTypeCode
		FROM ContentType 
		WHERE CategoryCode = 'NEWS' AND CONTENTTYPECODE <> 'ATRVNW'
		ORDER BY ContentTypeName
NewsCategories2 (Datasource=AeroNews, Time=0ms, Records=8, Cached Query) in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\model\main\qryNewscats.cfm @ 00:17:34.034
SELECT 
			ContentTypeName, ContentTypeCode
		FROM ContentType 
		WHERE CategoryCode = 'NEWS'
		ORDER BY ContentTypeName


Scope Variables

CGI Variables:
AUTH_PASSWORD=
AUTH_TYPE=
AUTH_USER=
CERT_COOKIE=
CERT_FLAGS=
CERT_ISSUER=
CERT_KEYSIZE=
CERT_SECRETKEYSIZE=
CERT_SERIALNUMBER=
CERT_SERVER_ISSUER=
CERT_SERVER_SUBJECT=
CERT_SUBJECT=
CF_TEMPLATE_PATH=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\index.cfm
CONTENT_LENGTH=0
CONTENT_TYPE=
CONTEXT_PATH=
GATEWAY_INTERFACE=CGI/1.1
HTTPS=off
HTTPS_KEYSIZE=
HTTPS_SECRETKEYSIZE=
HTTPS_SERVER_ISSUER=
HTTPS_SERVER_SUBJECT=
HTTP_ACCEPT=*/*
HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING=gzip, br, zstd, deflate
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE=
HTTP_CONNECTION=Keep-Alive
HTTP_COOKIE=
HTTP_HOST=www.aero-news.net
HTTP_REFERER=
HTTP_URL=/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=E8EB408D-C77D-48C8-B3CF-3E7A319C90B5
HTTP_USER_AGENT=Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
LOCAL_ADDR=10.0.20.10
PATH_INFO=
PATH_TRANSLATED=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\clients\aero-news.net\index.cfm
QUERY_STRING=do=main.textpost&id=E8EB408D-C77D-48C8-B3CF-3E7A319C90B5
REMOTE_ADDR=10.0.20.1
REMOTE_HOST=10.0.20.1
REMOTE_USER=
REQUEST_METHOD=GET
SCRIPT_NAME=/index.cfm
SERVER_NAME=www.aero-news.net
SERVER_PORT=80
SERVER_PORT_SECURE=0
SERVER_PROTOCOL=HTTP/1.1
SERVER_SOFTWARE=Microsoft-IIS/10.0
WEB_SERVER_API=
Cookie Variables:
CFID=5097537
CFTOKEN=dcd649101b3654e0-A6EED689-097A-2458-6B0B2962A847F75F
Session Variables:
sessionid=2B9A7FE89D3DF893A98D2AD33CC767C8.cfusion
urltoken=CFID=5097537&CFTOKEN=dcd649101b3654e0-A6EED689-097A-2458-6B0B2962A847F75F&jsessionid=2B9A7FE89D3DF893A98D2AD33CC767C8.cfusion
URL Parameters:
do=main.textpost
id=E8EB408D-C77D-48C8-B3CF-3E7A319C90B5
Debug Rendering Time: 18 ms