United Launch Alliance’s new red-and-white Vulcan rocket lifted off in the early Monday morning darkness directly on time during its maiden flight from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, propelling the Peregrine robotic lunar lander to its planned Feb. 23 moon landing.

“It was so exciting. I ran outside so I could watch this thing lift off. And that was so cool, after so many years of development, to watch this thing fly,” Eric Monda, who works on ULA’s mission design team, said 10½ minutes after liftoff on NASA TV.

“That was fantastic,” Monda said.

The Vulcan’s inaugural Cert-1 mission headlined a back-to-back Space Coast launch doubleheader. SpaceX sent a Falcon 9 into low-Earth orbit at 5:35 p.m. EST Sunday from Launch Complex 40, and the rocket deployed another batch of 23 Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit.

Eight hours and 43 minutes later, the ULA Vulcan took flight at 2:18 a.m. Monday from nearby Launch Complex 41.

“Vulcan is very much based on our heritage rockets, the Delta IV and Atlas V vehicles. But we brought in a lot of new innovation and capabilities that are going to allow us to even better support our warfighters (and) exploration, as well as connecting the world,” Amanda Bacchetti, ULA director of vehicle upgrades, said during the NASA TV broadcast.

Next, ULA officials are targeting April for Vulcan’s second flight to earn certification to carry Space Force national security payloads. Afterward, Bacchetti said engineers will embark upon about two months’ worth of data testing before earning certification.

More: Viewer’s guide: ULA’s Vulcan rocket aims for historic maiden liftoff early Monday morning

Astrobotic’s Peregrine four-legged lunar lander measures 6.2 feet tall and 8.2 feet wide. Equipped with a top-mounted solar panel, it will operate for about 10 days on the moon’s surface with an array of scientific instrumentation.

“The United States hasn’t soft-landed on the moon since NASA’s Apollo program more than 50 years ago. And only a handful of countries have ever successfully landed on the lunar surface,” Alivia Chapala, Astrobotic director of marketing and communication, said on NASA TV.

“Astrobotic’s aim is to not only return the American flag to the moon again with Peregrine, but also to start regular commercial lunar deliveries to the moon’s surface,” Chapala said.

For the latest launch schedule updates from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.

Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: ULA Vulcan launches without delay on historic maiden flight from Cape