Despite delays, United Launch Alliance (ULA) said its Vulcan heavy-lift rocket will fly two missions for the Space Force before the end of the year if the second flight goes smoothly. Vulcan had its maiden flight in January years behind schedule, with the second certification flight scheduled to take off from Cape Canaveral soon. ULA CEO Tory Bruno expressed confidence in Vulcan’s certification timeline to launch missions USSF-106 and USSF-87 by the year-end.
In June, ULA co-owners Lockheed and Boeing formed an independent review team to keep Vulcan on track, providing suggestions for improvement in production planning and management. ULA officials had hoped for Vulcan’s second flight in April, but delays with the intended payload pushed the timeline back. ULA will now launch a dummy payload on the second certification flight, bearing the entire cost that is in the high tens of millions of dollars.
Vulcan is ULA’s centerpiece to compete with SpaceX, which is developing its own heavy-lift rocket, Starship. ULA has invested billions in the rocket and infrastructure to support increased capacity. ULA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin are competing for contracts under the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch Phase 3 competition worth $5.6 billion over the next five years.
