United Launch Alliance has scheduled a second test flight of its new Vulcan rocket for September 16, and if the mission is a complete success, the U.S. military’s first Vulcan rocket launch could be ready by the end of the year.
The U.S. Space Command has contracted with ULA’s Vulcan rocket to launch the majority of the military’s space missions over the next few years. Pentagon officials are enthusiastic The Vulcan flights are set to begin clearing delays for the 25 military space missions the Space Force hopes to launch by the end of 2027.
Vulcan’s first launch in January was a success by any standard: the new rocket put a commercial lunar lander into its target orbit on its maiden flight. The next Vulcan mission, which ULA calls Cert-2, will be the rocket’s second certification flight. The Space Force requires ULA to complete two successful flights of the Vulcan rocket before it will be commissioned to launch national security satellites.
Time to actually take action
Pressure on ULA to complete a second Vulcan test flight comes as the longtime military launch provider, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is Last month, it announced it would launch the next-generation Vulcan rocket. The spacecraft ULA was planning to launch on its Cert-2 mission was the commercial Dream Chaser spacecraft developed by Sierra Space, but Dream Chaser won’t be ready to launch in September and may not fly until next year.
Instead of making any money from the Cert-2 mission, ULA will launch a dummy payload, or mass simulator, inside the nose cone of its upcoming Vulcan rocket.ULA CEO Tory Bruno called the company’s decision a “certification at its own expense.”
Two sources told Ars that ULA plans to launch its second Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Command Station in Florida on September 16, but that launch date is nearly two months away, so don’t be surprised if there are some tweaks to the schedule.
In June, ULA will transport a second Vulcan rocket from its Alabama factory to Cape Canaveral for final processing before loading it onto a mobile launch pad next month. One must-do list before then is the next launch of ULA’s current workhorse, the Atlas V, scheduled for July 30.
The Atlas V is fully stacked in ULA’s vertically integrated facility at Cape Canaveral and will be transported from the hangar to the pad a few days before launch. It is one of 16 Atlas V rockets remaining in ULA’s inventory. Bruno said ULA expects to complete production of the remaining Atlas V rockets by the end of the year, which will allow the company to repurpose floor space at its rocket factory to ramp up production of its Vulcan launch vehicle.
Once the Atlas V launches later this month, the hangar will be cleared and ULA will be able to begin assembling parts for the second Vulcan rocket. Ground teams are scheduled to conduct a countdown rehearsal in August, when the launch team will load the Vulcan rocket with liquid methane, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.
Bruno told reporters last month that ULA would not need to rehearse the countdown for future Vulcan flights.
Most of the remaining Atlas V rockets are allocated to Amazon’s Project Kuiper Broadband Constellation missions, as well as astronaut missions on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The Atlas V flight scheduled for July 30 will be the last to launch a mission for the U.S. Space Force. It will also mark ULA’s 100th national security mission overall since the company was formed in 2006 from the merger of Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s former launch businesses.
The U.S. military and intelligence agencies are ULA’s primary customers, and the company operated Delta IV and Atlas V rockets until the Delta IVs were retired earlier this year.
If all goes according to plan, ULA will launch its 101st national security mission using a Vulcan rocket before the end of the year. The mission, designated USSF-106, will launch an experimental demonstration satellite for the Air Force Research Laboratory into near geostationary orbit to test next-generation satellite navigation technology.
