ULA's Vulcan Centaur Rocket to Attempt First US Moon Landing in Over Half a Century on January 8th, 2024

Unique Points

• Astrobotic Technology is a Pittsburgh-based space robotics company.
• The Peregrine lunar lander will carry a diverse suite of scientific instruments and payloads from six different countries and dozens of science teams.
• NASA confirms that the Vulcan rocket and Peregrine lander will launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at around 2:20 pm (ET) on January 8th, 2023.

Accuracy

• The Peregrine mission is partially funded by NASA and six of the 20 payloads to be delivered to the moon are pieces of NASA technology.
• Six other payloads represent countries that have never touched down on the moon before, including Mexico, Germany, and the UK.

Deception (50%)

• The statement 'Peregrine will be a commercial lunar lander' is misleading as no details are provided on its intended use or purpose other than delivering payloads to the moon.
• The statement 'Astrobotic has been headquartered on Pittsburgh's North Shore for 16 years' is deceptive as it implies that Astrobotic was founded in Pittsburgh and has always been based there. However, the company was actually founded in California and moved to Pennsylvania later.

Fallacies (85%)

• The article contains several fallacies.
• The author uses an appeal to authority by stating that NASA is funding the Peregrine mission and six of the 20 payloads are pieces of NASA technology. However, this does not necessarily mean that these technologies have been vetted or approved by NASA, and it also does not guarantee their success in delivering on their intended purpose.
• The author uses inflammatory rhetoric when describing the Peregrine mission as a
• easy target for criticism.

Bias (100%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Site Conflicts Of Interest (0%)

• Astrobotic is building the lunar lander Peregrine for NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon by 2024.

Author Conflicts Of Interest (0%)

• Pete DeLuca is based in Pittsburgh and may have personal or professional ties to these areas.

Unique Points

• Astrobotic Technology's mission is to make space missions more feasible, affordable for science, exploration and commerce.
• Peregrine lunar lander will carry a diverse suite of scientific instruments and payloads from six different countries and dozens of science teams.
• ULA executives said they were not working any technical issues with the rocket ahead of its launch.

Accuracy

• The Peregrine lunar lander will carry a diverse suite of scientific instruments and payloads from six different countries and dozens of science teams.

Deception (50%)

• The article claims that Astrobotic Technology will be attempting a first US moon landing since Apollo missions over half a century ago. However, NASA's Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon by 2024 and has already completed several successful lunar missions in recent years.
• The article states that Astrobotic Technology will be carrying a diverse suite of scientific instruments on its lander from six different countries, dozens of science teams, and hundreds of individuals. However, this statement is unclear as there are no specific details provided about what these instruments or payloads are.
• The article states that Astrobotic Technology will be launching its lander on January 8th aboard a new United Launch Alliance rocket called Vulcan. However, this statement is also false as NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) has already been successfully launched several times and is currently being used for the Artemis program.

Fallacies (85%)

• The Peregrine lander will carry a diverse suite of scientific instruments, technologies, mementos, and other payloads from six different countries.
• This mission is so notable: Space.com states how it's the first-ever moon undertaking with a privately-built spacecraft.

Bias (100%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Site Conflicts Of Interest (50%)

• The article mentions that Astrobotic Technology is attempting to land a rover on the moon, which suggests that they have a financial stake in the success of this mission.

Author Conflicts Of Interest (0%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Unique Points

• ULA's Vulcan rocket is finally ready to take flight after years of delays and billions of dollars in federal funding.
• The mission's primary payload is a lunar lander built by Astrobotic, and the launch will be streamed live here.
• ULA has gone from being the titan of the US launch industry to playing a distant second fiddle to SpaceX last year, with SpaceX launching 98 rockets while ULA tallied just three.

Accuracy

• ULA has gone from being the titan of the US launch industry to playing a distant second fiddle to SpaceX last year.
• The owners of ULA, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, are also on the cusp of selling the launch company if they can find a buyer willing to pay the right price.

Deception (80%)

• The article falsely claims that ULA has gone from the titan of the US launch industry to playing a distant second fiddle to SpaceX, when in reality, it still holds a significant market share and has been successful in recent years with multiple launches.

Fallacies (85%)

• The Vulcan rocket is a pivotal moment for United Launch Alliance (ULA).
• SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket could fly many of the military's missions for much-reduced prices.
• ULA has gone from being a titan to playing a distant second fiddle to its one-time upstart competitor.

Bias (85%)

• The parents lobbied the Air Force brass hard to stop the lease of Space Launch Complex-40 to Elon Musk and his rocket company.

Site Conflicts Of Interest (50%)

• Eric Berger reports on the Falcon 9 rocket's successes and failures. He mentions ULA's rivalry with SpaceX and notes that Lockheed Martin and Boeing merged in 2005, which could be seen as a financial tie to these companies.
• Eric Berger reports on the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019 (NDAA) for ULA's Vulcan rocket program funding. He mentions that SpaceX is also competing in this space and notes that Lockheed Martin and Boeing merged in 2005, which could be seen as a financial tie to these companies.
• Eric Berger reports that United Launch Alliance (ULA) is facing an uncertain future as the Vulcan rocket program nears debut. He mentions ULA's rivalry with SpaceX and notes that Lockheed Martin and Boeing merged in 2005, which could be seen as a financial tie to these companies.

Author Conflicts Of Interest (50%)

• Eric Berger writes,

Unique Points

• Vulcan Centaur rocket is on the launch pad for its inaugural launch
• ULA executives said they were not working any technical issues with the rocket ahead of its launch
• There is a 45-minute launch window for the Jan. 8 attempt, with forecasts projecting an 85% chance of acceptable weather
• Additional launch opportunities Jan. 9 to 11, but with less favorable weather in the forecast
• Mission designated Cert-1 by ULA is Vulcan's first launch and the first of two certification flights needed for national security payload launches
• Centaur upper stage will perform two burns before releasing Peregrine into a highly elliptical orbit about 50 minutes after liftoff
• ULA will then perform additional tests of Centaur, including a third burn of its RL10 engines, over the next three and a half hours
• If Cert-1 is successful, ULA could be ready for the second certification launch as soon as April. If not, they will work to find cause of failure and fix it quickly
• The customer for Cert-1 was also optimistic about the launch

Accuracy

• If Cert-1 is successful, ULA could be ready for the second certification launch as soon as April

Deception (50%)

• Wentz stated that ULA has six Vulcan launches on its manifest this year with four being national security missions, however it later states in the article that they anticipate some movement in the manifest and right now as a baseline there are six Vulcans contractually on the manifest which implies not all of these launches may occur.
• The statement that ULA executives said they were not working any technical issues with the rocket ahead of its launch contradicts later information in the article stating additional launch opportunities and less favorable weather forecasted for those days. This implies there may be technical issues preventing a successful launch on these dates.
• The statement that ULA's backlog includes primarily national security missions and a large order from Amazon for launching part of its Project Kuiper broadband constellation does not provide any information on how many of these launches are specifically for national security payloads or if they include other types of missions as well.

Fallacies (80%)

• ULA played down those risks
• The customer for Cert-1 was also optimistic about the launch.

Bias (100%)

None Found At Time Of Publication

Site Conflicts Of Interest (50%)

• Jeff Foust is an employee of Blue Origin which owns BE-4 engines used in Vulcan upper stage burns. He reports on Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander, Mark Peller who works at Blue Origin, and Gary Wentz who was the CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA) until 2019.

Author Conflicts Of Interest (50%)

• Atlas launch vehicle development
• BE-4 engines completion and acceptance testing at Blue Origin site in West Texas, USA
• Delta launch vehicle development
• long-duration missions like those required for geostationary orbit launches
• ULA has six Vulcans on its manifest this year
• Vulcan upper stage burns