An eventful week for Alabama rocket builder United Launch Alliance (ULA) came to a close with a special renaming ceremony for the ship that carries its unique cargo to launch destinations.
Departing from a critical inland port along the Tennessee River in North Alabama, ULA utilizes a specially designed cargo ship to carry its rockets to launch locations such as Florida and California.
ULA president and CEO Tory Bruno presided over the renaming ceremony for the boat which will hereafter be called Rocketship. One of ULA’s Atlas rockets was loaded onto Rocketship for transport shortly before the event.
Mighty Atlas going aboard our ship before the renaming ceremony. #ULARocketShip pic.twitter.com/gTYPp1pfNo
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) September 27, 2019
A typical journey to Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard Rocketship takes eight to 10 days and covers 2,000 miles.
Earlier in the week, ULA announced that it will set a record manufacturing pace with 30 boosters in production during the 2019 and 2020 calendar years. ULA operates a 1.6 million square foot plant in Decatur, the largest such manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere.
It also announced that its cutting-edge Vulcan Centaur booster had entered the structural testing phase at the Dynetics testing facility located within the confines of its campus.
#ICYMI: Last week, the #VulcanCentaur qual booster left our Decatur factory and headed across campus to @Dynetics for structural testing. Another milestone and another step closer to first launch in 2021! pic.twitter.com/vaCq1CH6DL
— ULA (@ulalaunch) September 24, 2019
The Vulcan Centaur is a next-generation rocket purpose-built to carry out national security space missions for the U.S. military.
Tim Howe is an owner of Yellowhammer Multimedia
