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Enterprise Flight Update
January 5th, 2023
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Dear Mr. Smith,
Celestis has an update from its launch provider, United Launch Alliance (ULA), regarding progress toward its upcoming Enterprise Flight honoring DeForest Kelley. On December 13, Celestis Co-Founder and CEO Charles M. Chafer visited the ULA Decatur, Alabama, rocket factory, which is the manufacturing center for all ULA launchers (Atlas, Delta, and Vulcan) and Centaur upper stages.
Chafer was able to view – close up – and receive information on the first Vulcan rocket and the new Centaur 5 stage, which will soon power both Celestis Memorial Spaceflights’ Enterprise Flight and Tranquility Flight. The ULA hosting team and several factory floor workers who introduced themselves were – to a person – very enthusiastic about hosting our Celestis payloads. A documentary film team also accompanied the group, capturing video for future production. Read this Made in Alabama article to learn more about ULA’s Decatur, Alabama, manufacturing facility. |
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| Celestis Co-Founder and CEO Charles M. Chafer by the Vulcan rocket at ULA’s Decatur, Alabama facility. Photo credit: Celestis |
| The Vulcan rocket, when fully constructed, will be shipped via the Tennessee River on the SS Spaceship to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where it will be readied for its early 2023 launch. Our next step is to hand over the 185 Enterprise Flight capsules to ULA later this month in Florida for final integration into the flight vehicle’s Centaur 5 upper stage. |
| Enterprise Flight will establish a solar orbit 150 to 300 million miles beyond the Earth-Moon system, becoming the world’s first true outpost of humanity in the cosmos, and will fulfill Celestis’ first-ever deep space Voyager Service.
Celestis Memorial Spaceflights will keep you informed and provide further updates regarding the Enterprise Flight in future emails. Also, please follow us on social media, as updates will be shared on our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram profiles.
Ad Astra!
Sincerely,
Celestis Launch Team
1-866-866-1186 Toll-Free (US and Canada) 1-281-971-4019 Intl. |
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Celestis Memorial Spaceflights
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I have asked Cristiana at Celestis if I can deliver my three-minute memorial service speech about De LIVE from my home via Zoom or some other virtual method instead of flying to Cape Canaveral and undergoing the three-day event. I hope she says yes, but if that isn’t possible (I’m waiting to hear back), she says I can pre-record the message and they will show it during the memorial service.
I’ve decided that I don’t want to risk flying with COVID still so prevalent, and because of the hassle of making refundable arrangements with an airline, registering with the designated host hotel, and getting to Cape Canaveral from the Orlando Airport would require me to rent and drive a car to and fro. It’s just too much to have to coordinate and worry about at my age. I’d rather stay home, “virtual in” to share what I want to say about De, and watch the launch on the Cesletis.com site. Doing it that way will feel far less frantic and be a lot safer than getting on a plane while COVID is still being a scourge to airine passengers (not to mention the travel horrors I’ve been hearing about recently in Florida and elsewhere).
My greatest sadness is that I was planning to meet one of my long-time clients, Teryl McLane, who has become very dear to me. She lives in Florida and she and her husband Keith were going to make plans to meet with me and spend some time together, BUT she says they want to fly here to Washington State sometime, since they have never been here, so it WILL happen, just not as soon as we expected, so that’s a good thing! I can’t wait to show them some of the Evergreen State! Maybe I can kidnap them and make them stay! HA HA HA HA (Fat chance of that. I think they are confirmed, very committed Floridians!)
