How does ULA's Vulcan rocket compare to the competition?

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One point that often gets overlooked when comparing these launch vehicles is that Vulcan has a cool fire painted on its side which makes it go faster.

The best part of Vulcans successful launch is that the next one will be with Dream Chasers debut launch. And im here for it!

As unfortunate it is that the Peregrine Lunar Lander failed, it’s amazing that Vulcan finally made its debut! Go team space!!

The 20-30 minutes format mixed into your standard long form is excellent and very welcome!! Great video!

I'm disappointed that this is only 20 minutes long but I'm still going to arrange my evening around watching it! Cheers Tim!

I think that the Vulcan rocket will have a limited role in LEO, but will continue to survive through the next couple of years due to the fact that it is good for high energy orbits.

I feel like this will be critical for whoever ends up buying ULA.

Excellent work as always Tim!

I think the thing that will determine success or failure for Vulcan beyond this current slate of missions (which by itself would be a respectable launch record) will be how much they continue to innovate with it. With SMART reuse and some of the Centaur V/ACES upgrades (IVF, XEUS and other in space operations) it could have a very long life serving its niche of the market.

I really hope you keep the YouTube angle going… no one is in a better position to give the more advanced version of these events. We need you Tim.

Gotta love a "short" Everyday Astronaut video!

I’ve been excited for Vulcan since it was announced. They definitely knew what they were doing by designing a rocket for high-energy orbits for DoD, NASA, and Communications Satellites, and not trying to compete with the LEO market which is driven primarily by price and not performance.

Honestly, I can see Vulcan lasting a long time, precisely because it's tailored towards high-energy payloads. A lot of rockets today (including Starship as it would need refueling otherwise) are kinda designed for LEO, and that limits their abilities for higher orbits (Ariane 6 being an obvious exception). From my understanding, ULA is doing SMART because of these high-energy orbits throwing the booster so far downrange that reentering Earth's atmosphere is just entirely impractical. With SMART going online, and if anything with ACES is done, I can absolutely see Vulcan remaining competitive for a long time.

Great video. I appreciate the fact you point out uncertainties where they occur instead of just glossing over them like many others. Great work!

Don’t underestimate how important total faring dimensions and volume are! JWST’s specs were driven heavily by the Ariane 5, and Hubble was built to fit by a hair into the space shuttle. The large size of Vulcan’s capacity is a big selling point — not just for government contracts, but for other satellites and probes as well, perhaps.

Great job Tim! I prefer the shorter episode...hard to fit more than 20 mins into busy schedule. I love your simple language explaining complex things. You're sketches, arrows etc on key photos really help. Thanks for your purist approach, also nice to hear your opinions and visions!

Answering the questions that everyday people like me have.. had for a very long time. Thanks Tim. as ever!

Short videos are cool but My favorite videos are the Hour long in depth rocket engine breakdown. From the different cycles to how to start a rocket engine, I love the full explanation and detailed info in those long videos and hope for more like those soon!

I was searching for such a comparison the last few days, Tim you’re a godsend!