What’s next for ULA’s Vulcan rocket?

Last week, the US Space Force announced it had certified ULA‘s Vulcan rocket for use on national security space launches, a major win for the company’s bottom line. However, the multi-month delay means Vulcan will not be ULA’s next launch, but the company still has big plans for this year.

Last week the Space Force announced that it has finally certified the ULA Vulcan rocket just over a year after the rocket’s inaugural launch. This certification means that ULA will now be able to be assigned missions under the National Security Space Launch program that is in charge of launch services for the nation’s national defense payloads.

ULA was hoping to begin NSSL missions as soon as late last year; however, delays to the rocket’s second certification flight and an anomaly on that second launch caused a later than expected sign-off.

Last year, ULA launched two Vulcan rockets, Cert-1 and Cert-2. The first missions went off exactly as a ULA launch is expected to go, flawlessly. Cert-1 deployed the Peregrine lander for Astrobotic into space, on its way to the Moon. Cert-2 flew a payload simulator as its original payload, Sierra Space‘s Dream Chaser space plane, was delayed.

Cert-2 saw an anomaly that was rooted back to a manufacturing defect in one of the rocket’s two solid rocket motors. This led to the nozzle of the motor being ripped off during flight. While this did not affect the mission or change the performance of the Vulcan, the Space Force still investigated it before certifying the mission.

With certification now behind them, ULA can join SpaceX with its Falcon 9 and Heavy rockets in launching the DoD’s most important and sensitive payloads into space. ULA isn’t waiting around to get started; the first two Vulcan NSSL missions will take place this summer and be designated USSF-106 and USSF-87.

However, before these two missions can be launched, ULA’s soon-to-be-retired Atlas V rocket will have the pad. ULA took the delay in Vulcan’s launch status to get one of its remaining Atlas V rockets ready to launch Kuiper-1, the first deployment of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites.

While Vulcan wasn’t flying, ULA’s CEO Tory Bruno said he wasn’t doing nothing. The company’s factory in Alabama kept building rockets to stockpile hardware for their expected beginning of launch operations. Bruno believes ULA can launch as many as a dozen rockets this year, including the Atlas V, with up to 20 in 2026.

The end goal is two launches a month for the company, the most ULA will have ever done in the Boeing/Lockheed Martin joint venture’s history.