ULA’s Vulcan rocket certified for national security launches

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket lifts off Oct. 4, 2024 from Space Launch Complex-41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral on the Cert-2 flight test. (United Launch Alliance via Space Force)

WASHINGTON — The Space Force today announced it has certified United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan-Centaur launch vehicle to carry critical national security payloads to space — after a five month investigation into a problem with its second required flight test last October.

With that thumbs up from Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Assured Access to Space program office in hand, ULA now is the second fully certified launch provider, along with SpaceX, cleared under the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program.

Blue Origin, the space launch company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, also hopes to join the NSSL program. The company in January successfully tested its New Glenn heavy-lift rocket for the first time.

“Vulcan certification adds launch capacity, resiliency, and flexibility needed by our nation’s most critical space-based systems,” Brig. Gen. Panzenhagen, the Assured Access to Space program executive officer, said in a Space Force press release.

ULA CEO Tory Bruno told reporters on March 12 that the loss of one of the engine nozzles during Vulcan’s second NSSL certification flight was caused by a manufacturing error.

In a statement today, Bruno said “Vulcan is uniquely designed to meet the challenging requirements demanded by an expanding spectrum of missions for U.S. national security space launches. Moreover, this next-generation rocket provides high performance and extreme accuracy while continuing to deliver to our customer’s most challenging and exotic orbits.”

There are two NSSL launches already in Vulcan’s queue under the current NSSL Phase 2 program: USSF-106 and USSF-87, both of which were supposed to go up last year but had to be postponed due to the investigation of the second flight.

A senior Space Force official said in January that the service is planning 18 total launches this year under  NSSL Phase 2: 11 on Vulcan and seven for SpaceX’s Falcon 9.