The first of a new generation of United Launch Alliance (ULA) rockets has arrived at the Cape Canaveral launch site to prepare for its debut flight. The Vulcan Centaur variant will fly in the coming months with Astrobotic's private Peregrine lunar lander and two Amazon Kuiper internet satellites, as well as a special commercial payload, the Celestis Memorial Spaceflight Payload.

It is known that some components of the rocket, including boosters manufactured by Northrop Grumann, were delivered to Cape Canaveral last year, this year the remaining parts were delivered, including the main booster and the upper stage of the Vulcan Centaur - they traveled more than 3000 km on the ship from the company's plant in Alabama .

The Vulcan Centaur rocket will be a 67-meter structure designed to replace ULA's workhorses, the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, designed for commercial and government missions. The upper stage of the Centaur V receives up to 6 solid propellant engines, the first stage is equipped with two BE-4 engines, powered by methane and liquid oxygen, built by Blue Origin.

"Give way, the rocket is moving," ULA chief Tory Bruno tweeted after the components were delivered by the RocketShip barge. It is known that now all the elements have been delivered to the spaceport.

The Vulcan Centaur rocket and its components will undergo a series of checks and tests at the intended launch site. The first mission is scheduled for the first quarter of this year. The Certification-1 mission will send two prototype Amazon Project Kuiper satellites and the Peregrine lunar lander built by Astrobotic into space. What's more, a special Celestis Memorial Spaceflight Payload mission will deliver a commercial payload of more than 150 capsules of cremated remains, DNA samples, and messages into orbit around the Sun, where they'll stay forever.

The Peregrine lander will carry 24 payloads to the Moon - including 11 for NASA as part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services project.