Photographs courtesy of United Launch Alliance
How the Tennessee River is the heart of the operation for a unique cargo ship
R/S RocketShip is a unique cargo ship used to transport rockets from United Launch Alliance’s (ULA’s) production facility in Decatur, Alabama.
United Launch Alliance (ULA) strives to save lives, explore the universe and connect the world through space technology and launch services. Since 2006, ULA has had 150 consecutive launches. Before those rockets are launched into space, though, they go to sea via the Tennessee River, among other waterways. That voyage is completed by none other than a rocket ship: the R/S RocketShip to be exact.
What is the R/S RocketShip?
The R/S RocketShip, previously named the Delta Mariner, is a 312-foot cargo vessel that is used to transport space flight hardware components from ULA’s 1.6 million-square-foot production facility in Decatur, Alabama. It is the only U.S. flagged ship with the capability to transport rockets on both rivers and open ocean. Weighing nearly 19 million pounds, the ship can hold 163,800 gallons of fuel and produces 8,000 horsepower. The R/S Rocket-Ship can transport Atlas V, Delta IV and Vulcan Centaur boosters, second stages and payload fairings in an environmentally controlled setting. A crew of 16 river pilots and ULA personnel also have a complete living quarters and dining area on board.
The heart of the journey
Since its start in 1999, the R/S RocketShip has made countless trips from the ULA facility to both Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. While neither the facility nor stations are in the Volunteer State, the ship must travel through Tennessee with every voyage it makes.
The Tennessee River is the heart of each ULA rocket ship journey. The parts that make the spacecrafts are fabricated in Decatur, and then those are loaded on the R/S RocketShip at ULA’s own loading and landing port. The R/S RocketShip then makes its route south through the various locks on the Tennessee River, eventually going up through the state of Tennessee. It then crosses over and enters the Ohio River and the Mississippi River, totaling 2,642 river miles.
The ULA Vulcan Cert-1 rocket is off-loaded from the R/S RocketShip at Port Canaveral, Florida.
Once the river miles are complete, the R/S RocketShip either heads south and around the Florida Keys for eight days and 1,694 ocean miles to reach Cape Canaveral Space Force Station or heads through the Panama Canal for 23 days and 8,812 ocean miles to reach Vandenberg Space Force Base.
What’s next?
The big blue and white vessel that is often seen traveling the Tennessee River, the ship you now know is carrying mission critical hardware for defense purposes or space exploration, soon will have a companion. Bollinger Shipyards is currently designing and creating a second transport vessel that will serve as a duplicate for the R/S RocketShip. Fittingly named the R/S SpaceShip, it will have the same capacity as the R/S RocketShip and is expected to be delivered to ULA in January 2026.
A ULA Vulcan Centaur Pathfinder Testing Tank (PTT) booster leaves Decatur, Alabama, to begin its journey on R/S RocketShip to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for site testing.
The R/S RocketShip arrives at Port Canaveral, Florida, to deliver the ULA Vulcan Cert-1 booster and Centaur V upper stage from ULA’s factory in Decatur, Alabama, on Jan. 21, 2023.
