After more than a decade of development and testing, US military officials are finally ready to entrust United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket to haul a batch of national security satellites into space.
An experimental military navigation satellite, also more than 10 years in the making, will ride ULA's Vulcan rocket into geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator. There are additional payloads buttoned up inside the Vulcan rocket's nose cone, but officials from the US Space Force are mum on the details.
The Vulcan rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, at 7:59 pm EDT (23:59 UTC) Tuesday. There's an 80 percent chance of favorable weather during the one-hour launch window. It will take several hours for the Vulcan rocket's Centaur upper stage to reach its destination in geosynchronous orbit. You can watch ULA's live launch webcast below.
The Vulcan rocket flew two demonstration missions in 2024, capping a lengthy campaign to design, build, and test ULA's new launch vehicle before the Space Force could declare it ready for operational service.
Now, ULA is poised to begin ticking off a backlog of more than 70 Vulcan launches the company has sold to commercial and government customers. The new rocket's largest users, by far, will be Amazon and the US Space Force.
New and improved
"We're excited to see this mission launch," said Gary Wentz, ULA's vice president of government and commercial programs. "This will be the most powerful Vulcan yet."
The first two Vulcan test flights last year used a configuration of the rocket with two strap-on boosters to add an extra burst of speed off the launch pad. For this flight, which the Space Force has named USSF-106, the launcher will fly with four solid rocket boosters made by Northrop Grumman.
These boosters are larger versions of the solid rocket motors ULA and its predecessors have flown on their previous rockets for 35 years. Despite their long history of successful flights, the boosters came under the microscope after a nozzle failure on the second Vulcan test flight last October. The nozzle at the bottom of one of the solid rocket boosters fell off the launcher moments after liftoff, but the motor continued firing, and Vulcan still made it to its intended orbit.