Vulcan Centaur
E128732
Vulcan Centaur is United Launch Alliance’s next-generation, two-stage heavy-lift rocket designed to replace Atlas V and Delta IV for a wide range of commercial, government, and deep-space missions.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Vulcan Centaur canonical | 12 |
| Centaur V | 2 |
| Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle program | 1 |
| Vulcan Centaur upper stage | 1 |
| Vulcan rocket | 1 |
| Vulcan rocket family | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1037787 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Vulcan Centaur Context triple: [Starliner spacecraft, launchVehicle, Vulcan Centaur]
-
A.
Titan IIIE-Centaur
Titan IIIE-Centaur was a U.S. expendable launch vehicle that combined a Titan III booster with a high-energy Centaur upper stage to send deep-space probes such as Voyager 2 on interplanetary trajectories.
-
B.
Atlas-Centaur
Atlas-Centaur was an American expendable launch vehicle family that combined an Atlas booster with a high-energy Centaur upper stage to send payloads, including early interplanetary probes, into space.
-
C.
LC-39B
LC-39B is a launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center that has supported major crewed and uncrewed space missions, including Space Shuttle flights and later Space Launch System operations.
-
D.
H-IIA launch vehicle
The H-IIA launch vehicle is a Japanese expendable rocket system used primarily for satellite deployment and space exploration missions.
-
E.
Falcon Heavy rocket
The Falcon Heavy rocket is SpaceX’s heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of carrying large payloads to orbit using a reusable, triple-booster first stage.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Vulcan Centaur Target entity description: Vulcan Centaur is United Launch Alliance’s next-generation, two-stage heavy-lift rocket designed to replace Atlas V and Delta IV for a wide range of commercial, government, and deep-space missions.
-
A.
Titan IIIE-Centaur
Titan IIIE-Centaur was a U.S. expendable launch vehicle that combined a Titan III booster with a high-energy Centaur upper stage to send deep-space probes such as Voyager 2 on interplanetary trajectories.
-
B.
Atlas-Centaur
Atlas-Centaur was an American expendable launch vehicle family that combined an Atlas booster with a high-energy Centaur upper stage to send payloads, including early interplanetary probes, into space.
-
C.
LC-39B
LC-39B is a launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center that has supported major crewed and uncrewed space missions, including Space Shuttle flights and later Space Launch System operations.
-
D.
H-IIA launch vehicle
The H-IIA launch vehicle is a Japanese expendable rocket system used primarily for satellite deployment and space exploration missions.
-
E.
Falcon Heavy rocket
The Falcon Heavy rocket is SpaceX’s heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of carrying large payloads to orbit using a reusable, triple-booster first stage.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
expendable launch vehicle
ⓘ
heavy-lift launch vehicle ⓘ orbital launch vehicle ⓘ |
| boosters | GEM 63XL ⓘ |
| capability |
geostationary transfer orbit missions
ⓘ
interplanetary missions ⓘ low Earth orbit missions ⓘ |
| configuration | two-stage rocket ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| designGoal |
increased performance over Atlas V
ⓘ
reduced launch cost ⓘ support for U.S. national security space launches ⓘ |
| fairingDiameter | 5.4 meters ⓘ |
| fairingType | payload fairing ⓘ |
| family |
Vulcan Centaur
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Vulcan rocket family
|
| firstStageEngine | BE-4 ⓘ |
| firstStageEngineManufacturer | Blue Origin ⓘ |
| firstStagePropellant |
liquefied natural gas
ⓘ
liquid oxygen ⓘ |
| intendedUse |
commercial missions
ⓘ
deep-space missions ⓘ government missions ⓘ national security missions ⓘ |
| launchComplex |
Space Launch Complex 3
ⓘ
surface form:
Space Launch Complex 3E
Cape Canaveral LC-41 ⓘ
surface form:
Space Launch Complex 41
|
| launchSite |
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
ⓘ
Vandenberg Space Force Base ⓘ |
| manufacturer | United Launch Alliance ⓘ |
| marketSegment | medium- to heavy-lift launch market ⓘ |
| maximumNumberOfBoosters | 6 ⓘ |
| numberOfFirstStageEngines | 2 ⓘ |
| operator | United Launch Alliance ⓘ |
| predecessor |
Atlas V
ⓘ
Delta IV ⓘ |
| program | United Launch Alliance Vulcan program ⓘ |
| propulsionType |
cryogenic upper stage
ⓘ
liquid-fueled first stage ⓘ |
| replaces |
Atlas V
ⓘ
Delta IV ⓘ |
| secondStage |
Vulcan Centaur
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Centaur V
|
| secondStageEngine |
RL10
ⓘ
surface form:
RL10C
|
| secondStageEngineManufacturer | Aerojet Rocketdyne ⓘ |
| secondStagePropellant |
liquid hydrogen
ⓘ
liquid oxygen ⓘ |
| solidRocketBoosterManufacturer | Northrop Grumman ⓘ |
| status | operational ⓘ |
| successorTo | ULA EELV-class launchers ⓘ |
| upperStageDiameter | 5.4 meters ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Vulcan Centaur Description of subject: Vulcan Centaur is United Launch Alliance’s next-generation, two-stage heavy-lift rocket designed to replace Atlas V and Delta IV for a wide range of commercial, government, and deep-space missions.
Referenced by (18)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Centaur V
this entity surface form:
Centaur V
this entity surface form:
Vulcan rocket family
this entity surface form:
Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle program