ULA's Vulcan rocket faces delays over Space Force certification

In the United States, United Launch Alliance (ULA) is experiencing significant delays in the launch of its Vulcan rocket due to pending certification from the Space Force. As of February 11, 2025, ULA had to remove its next Vulcan rocket from the launch pad while waiting for the Space Force's formal approval. ULA had initiated preparations back in October 2024, stacking the third Vulcan rocket on a mobile launch platform in hopes of conducting a military mission by the end of the year, a target that has now been missed. The delay has broader implications, as numerous military satellite missions scheduled for the Vulcan launcher are also being pushed back. Currently, vital military satellite capacity remains unused on the ground due to these setbacks. The U.S. Pentagon had assigned ULA and SpaceX the responsibility of launching a series of national security missions, and with multiple contracts in place, the timeline for these launches is critical. ULA was initially optimistic about its Vulcan rocket, predicting readiness for the first military mission in mid-2024. The Vulcan rocket test flights have not been entirely smooth either. A second test flight on October 4, 2024, while successful in reaching orbit, suffered a malfunction when one solid rocket booster lost its exhaust nozzle shortly after liftoff. This incident eliminated ULA's chances of launching the first Vulcan mission for the Space Force in 2024. Despite these challenges, ULA's CEO Tory Bruno has mentioned that engineers have identified the cause of the issue with the rocket boosters and that only minor modifications are required to prevent future malfunctions. Since the Space Force's Space Systems Command continues to withhold certification for Vulcan, ULA is now shifting focus to other missions to adapt to the delays. Amazon’s first batch of production satellites for the Kuiper Internet constellation has taken priority in ULA's redesigned launch schedule. ULA holds several reserved missions for the deployment of Amazon's satellite network on the Vulcan launcher, totaling 38 missions in addition to eight flights on the Atlas V rockets. All these developments underline the urgency of resolving the certification issues for Vulcan to avoid further delays in ULA’s launch capabilities.