https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield...-in-september/
United Launch Alliance to fly second Vulcan mission in September
United Launch Alliance expects its Vulcan rocket to conduct its second Space Force certification flight in September, positioning the launch vehicle to fly its first national security space missions this year, according to the company’s top executive.
Vulcan flew its first mission in January, but a second is required to confirm that the rocket can perform consistently across multiple flights. CEO Tory Bruno told reporters June 26 he’s confident the company will complete the certification process in time to meet the Space Force’s timelines.
“At the moment, we’re quite confident that the payloads will be there,” he said in a media briefing. “I’ll have the rockets. All I need are satellites, and I should be able to fly them.”
ULA, along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is one of two companies with rockets cleared to fly national security space missions for DOD and the intelligence community. The company is in the process of
replacing its legacy Atlas V and Delta IV vehicles — longtime workhorse rockets for the U.S. government — with the more powerful Vulcan.
The company previously expected Vulcan to begin flying national security missions in 2022, following certification by the Space Force that the rocket is cleared to fly high-value missions.
Repeated delays — many involving the rocket’s BE-4 engine built by Blue Origin — have slowed that process
Blue Origin has largely overcome those engine setbacks, but ULA faced a new challenge in recent months when it learned that the payload for its second Space Force certification mission — Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane — was behind schedule.
Bruno told reporters that because of those delays and the need to certify Vulcan, the rocket will now carry an inert payload built by ULA as a backup. He described the payload as a mass simulator that will feature proprietary experiments and demonstrations that will inform future technology development for the company.
Once that mission launches, the company will work closely with the Space Force to support the necessary analysis to validate Vulcan’s performance. Bruno noted that because the service has had several months to review data from the rocket’s first mission, it shouldn’t take long to finalize the certification after the second flight.……
Bruno said that amid the reviews and the company’s focus on national security space launch certification, ULA is working to ensure its factories, launch facilities and supply chain are positioned to support an increased launch cadence in the coming years.
In 2025, ULA plans to launch 20 missions, some of which will fly on Vulcan and some on its Atlas V rocket.…..