United Launch Alliance plans larger Centaur stage for Artemis

United Launch Alliance plans a larger Centaur V upper stage for NASA’s Space Launch System, with a qualification test unit and a flight unit intended to support an Artemis launch in 2028. The company disclosed the development collaboration on October 23.

The proposed stage would have longer tanks and approximately 50 percent more propellant capacity than the current Centaur, ULA said. The additional propellant is intended to improve performance during the burn that sends a spacecraft towards the Moon.

ULA also plans to replace the current stainless-steel tank material with alloy 718, enlarge the hydrazine tanks and update the stage’s avionics and software. The company calls the design the 180K Centaur V and identifies human rating — qualification for crewed missions — as work the team must undertake.

The stage is to be built at ULA’s factory in Decatur, Alabama, then transported by the company’s RocketShip vessel to Florida. ULA’s stated integration sequence puts the stage above the Space Launch System booster and below the Orion spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center.

NASA presented its wider Artemis plans at Kennedy on October 23. The agency’s account describes Artemis III as a 2027 low-Earth-orbit mission to test systems for later lunar landings, followed by Artemis IV as the programme’s first lunar-surface mission. NASA continues to target a return to the surface in 2028.

ULA’s release does not announce a completed qualification test or flight unit, and gives no detailed test schedule or contract value. The 2028 date remains a development target rather than a demonstrated readiness date.