United Launch Alliance announced Wednesday it plans to return its Vulcan rocket to service on November 13, nine months after a solid rocket booster anomaly disrupted the company's 2026 launch schedule. The return-to-flight mission will launch 40 satellites for the Amazon Leo broadband constellation, the first of 38 Vulcan flights Amazon has booked to deploy the bulk of its network. The mission will lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and ULA said the launch date is pending range approval.
The launch is critical for ULA after its new flagship rocket suffered nozzle failures on its solid rocket boosters on two of its first four missions, most recently during a flight in February. In both cases, the rocket overcame the nozzle failure and completed its mission, but officials at the US Space Force, ULA's primary customer, lost confidence in Vulcan. Space Force officials will closely scrutinize the return-to-flight mission. The Pentagon has entrusted Vulcan for roughly half of its major launches through the early 2030s, and the Space Force certified the rocket for national security launches in 2025 before its grounding.
In a statement, United Launch Alliance said engineers "made great strides" in understanding the February booster anomaly. Engineers "have identified several potential contributors, which have been mitigated through design and process improvements to the nozzle," the company said.
"To support our customers, this upcoming launch will utilize the improved nozzle design, and additional testing and analysis will continue in parallel with the mission," ULA said. "By flying the improved design, ULA gains valuable flight data that validates these improvements and is the most beneficial path in support of all our customers."
Source: Ars Technica · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing