By Bethany Lee | 2024-11-21

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is closer than ever to completing its first national security launch with the heavy-lift launch vehicle Vulcan Centaur.

After two successful certification launches, ULA is preparing for the first Vulcan mission for the US Space Force (USSF) and Space Systems Command (SSC) with the start of stacking operations at the Vertical Integration Facility-G, adjacent to Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

"The Vulcan rocket is getting ready to serve the nation!" ULA announced October 21 on its website.

The American launch service provider this year completed two flights with Vulcan Centaur in Cape Canaveral, fulfilling the requirements for the USSF certification process.

The first certification flight (Cert-1) on January 8 included two payloads: Astrobotic's first Peregrine Lunar Lander and the Celestis Memorial Spaceflights mission known as the Enterprise Flight.

The second flight (Cert-2) on October 4 was originally meant to carry Sierra Space's Dream Chaser vehicle; however, because of delays in the Dream Chaser timeline, Cert-2 proceeded with a mass simulator, or inert payload, along with experiments and demonstrations for future Centaur V missions.

Cert-2 flight succeeded

Cert-2 was considered a success by ULA despite an anomaly with one GEM 63XL solid rocket booster.

"We had an observation on one of our solid rocket boosters ... that we are reviewing but we are overall pleased with the rocket's performance and had a bullseye insertion," Tory Bruno, ULA's president and CEO, said in a statement.

According to USSF SSC, which partnered with ULA on Cert-1 and Cert-2, the missions were crucial in evaluating the design and performance of the Vulcan launch systems and bringing it one step closer to a competitive launch market for public and private companies.

"The Space Force's partnership with launch companies, such as ULA, are [sic] absolutely critical in deploying on-orbit capabilities that protect our national interests," said Brig. Gen. Kristin L. Panzenhagen, SSC's program executive officer for Assured Access to Space and commander of Space Launch Delta 45.

"We are already starting to review the performance data from this launch, and we look forward to Vulcan meeting the certification requirements for a range of National Security Space missions," she said.

High performance and affordability

Vulcan Centaur builds on the technology of ULA's Atlas and Delta rockets with the goal of higher performance and greater affordability. ULA has also discussed future plans for Vulcan including recovering engines through a reuse plan called Sensible Modular Autonomous Return Technology, or SMART, to further increase cost-effectiveness.

The first national security mission with Vulcan, USSF-106, will deploy various payloads directly into geosynchronous orbit, more than 35,000km above Earth, including the Navigation Technology Satellite 3 (NTS-3).

The Air Force Research Laboratory called NTS-3 the first US satellite navigation experiment in nearly 50 years, following satellites from the 1970s that helped develop Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.

NTS-3 is meant to advance GPS technology and showcase a flexible system to counter modern threats, Arlen Biersgreen, the NTS-3 program manager, said in January 2023.

The launch date for this mission has yet to be announced.

"This mission is coming up soon; it's going to be very exciting, and then it opens the door for whole new missions for Vulcan in the future," Bruno said in October.