GoKawiilThe US Space Force is still dealing with the near-term implications of the second grounding of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket in less than two years. The experience is likely to influence how the Pentagon buys launch services in the future, a three-star general said Tuesday.
The Vulcan rocket is one of the two primary launch vehicles the Space Force uses to put satellites into orbit, alongside SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Despite a backlog of nearly 70 launches, ULA’s Vulcan has flown just four times since debuting in January 2024.
On two of those flights, the Vulcan launcher suffered anomalies with one of its solid rocket boosters. One of the booster’s exhaust nozzles blew off in the first incident in October 2024. The same problem appeared to occur again during a Vulcan launch in February of this year. The rocket continued flying after both incidents, ultimately reaching each mission’s targeted orbit.
But the nozzle malfunctions suggest something is seriously amiss at ULA and its booster supplier, Northrop Grumman. The Vulcan rocket is many months from returning to flight for the US military. One industry source told Ars that the Space Force may not fly another mission on Vulcan before the end of the year.
Reputational harm
Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, head of the Space Force’s Space Systems Command, said the Vulcan rocket’s reliability woes are top of mind among the military’s space leadership. On Tuesday, Garrant told Ars the experience with Vulcan “absolutely will shape” the military’s thinking the next time the Pentagon buys launch services.
“From my role, as essentially the person who accepts the risk of launching the rocket, it certainly shapes my decision space,” Garrant said.