The first lunar landing attempt for the U.S. since the Apollo era, five decades ago.

At 2-18 Eastern Monday morning, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan

Centaur lifted off from Cape Canaveral,

and a maiden flight a decade in the making.

It launched an uncrewed robotic lander

for AstraBotic that could, if all goes according to plan, become the first privately owned

spacecraft to successfully land on the moon.

ULA, which is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, had a lot riding on this mission as CEO

Tori Bruno discussed in an exclusive interview shortly after launch.

This was tremendously important for our position in the the government.

We replaced four families of rockets

in 51 configurations with this single Vulcan.

It's part of what allowed it to become so affordable

that it also means this is the platform.

For ULA, this was the first of two certification flights necessary

to begin carrying out national security missions.

Launch price undisclosed, but Vulcan is believed to be much more competitive with industry leader

SpaceX and comes as ULA is on the sale block, something Bruno declined to comment on.

As for Astrobatic, it's now headed to the moon before attempting a soft landing on February

23rd. On this episode Bruno discusses the first

flight and the business plan for Vulcan. I'm Morgan Brennan and this is

Manifest Space. Tori Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance.

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