Centaur (rocket Stage) - Current Status

Current Status

As of 2009, derivatives of the 10-foot-diameter (3.0 m) Centaur-3, with either one or two RL-10A4-2 engines, continue to be used as the upper stage of the Atlas V EELV rocket, the successor of the Titan-Centaur configuration.

Although ULA has an extensive launch manifest for future Centaur flights, ULA has been working on an upper stage design concept that would bring the Delta and Centaur stages together into a single new cryogenic second stage design. The Advanced Common Evolved Stage is intended as a lower-cost, more-capable and more-flexible upper stage that would supplement, and perhaps replace, the existing ULA (Lockheed Martin legacy) Centaur and the ULA (Boeing legacy) Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS) upper stage vehicles.

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