United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) new Vulcan Centaur rocket will conduct its first-ever nationwide safety launch subsequent week, if all goes based on plan.
ULA introduced on Tuesday (Aug. 5) that it is concentrating on Aug. 12 for USSF-106, a U.S. Space Force mission that can carry off from Cape Canaveral House Power Station in Florida.
“That is the primary nationwide safety area launch aboard the licensed Vulcan rocket. The Vulcan rocket will deploy the U.S.-106 mission on to geosynchronous (GEO) orbit utilizing the high-performance Centaur V higher stage,” ULA stated via X on Tuesday.
Vulcan Centaur — the substitute for ULA’s venerable Atlas V rocket — has two flights underneath its belt so far, each of which have been profitable.
The primary one, which flew in January 2024, despatched Astrobotic’s robotic Peregrine moon lander to Earth orbit. (Peregrine suffered a crippling anomaly shortly after it deployed from the rocket’s Centaur higher stage and ended up crashing back to Earth.)
Vulcan’s second flight, in October 2024, was a take a look at mission that flew with an inert mass simulator as a payload. The mass simulator took the place of Sierra House’s Dream Chaser area airplane, the initially deliberate payload, which wasn’t ready in time for the launch.
Vulcan powered by means of an issue on that second flight — the failure of of an engine nozzle on considered one of its two strong rocket boosters (SRBs). Its efficiency on these two missions impressed the House Power sufficient to certify Vulcan Centaur for nationwide safety missions, an enormous milestone for ULA that was announced in March.
The launch of a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket carrying the U.S. House Power (USSF)-106 mission for the US House Power’s House Techniques Command (SSC) is deliberate for Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025, from House Launch Advanced (SLC) 41 at Cape Canaveral House Power Station,… pic.twitter.com/OkWwEAxSUzAugust 5, 2025
The choice doubled the variety of at the moment licensed U.S. nationwide safety launch suppliers; SpaceX had been the one firm that would loft such payloads. (ULA’s Atlas V launched many nationwide safety missions through the years, however no such payloads are on its docket forward of its retirement in 2030 or so.)
“Assured entry to area is a core perform of the House Power and a essential factor of nationwide safety,” Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, the House Power’s program govt officer for assured entry to area, stated in an announcement in late March. “Vulcan certification provides launch capability, resiliency and adaptability wanted by our nation’s most important space-based techniques.”