ULA Readies Vulcan for Cert-2

United Launch Alliance is making final preparations for the launch of Vulcan Cert-2, the second certification flight of the company’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket, scheduled to launch no earlier than October 4th, 2024. The vehicle is set to lift off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:00 eastern time.

Following the successful first certification flight of Vulcan in January 2024, a second successful flight will complete the rocket’s certification process with the United States Space Force and enable it to conduct national security missions, and potentially attract further commercial customers. Vulcan represents a significant leap forward for ULA, combining aspects of the venerable Atlas and Delta series of rockets into a vehicle family that can execute a wide range of missions – streamlining the process for the company. If all performance expectations are met and the rocket is quickly certified, Vulcan could possibly begin carrying national security payloads before the year is out on the upcoming USSF-106 and USSF-87 missions – as well as enter a competitive bidding market for coveted science missions, launching payloads for NASA.

The Cert-2 mission will fly in an identical configuration to Vulcan’s first flight, with 2 GEM-63XL solid rocket motors alongside the vehicle’s twin BE-4 engines and a short carbon-composite fairing on the upper stage. Unlike Vulcan’s first flight, which carried Astrobotic’s ill-fated Peregrine lunar lander, Cert-2 will be a more rigorous test of the Centaur V upper stage – demonstrating its ability to loiter for long-duration missions and perform multiple restarts of its twin RL10 engines. These capabilities, alongside potential boil-off mitigation tests, represent a fundamental evolution of the stage since it began flying well over 60 years ago. The use of an inert payload also provides ULA with the ability to focus on putting its new vehicle’s abilities to the test without the worries and increased complexity of delivering a live payload to orbit, reducing risk in a highly complex environment.  

The deviation in payload type from Cert-1 to Cert-2 missions was the result of intense pressure from the Department of Defense to get the vehicle certified as quickly as possible, ensuring that the US government had access to multiple vehicles for critical national security missions. The originally intended payload, Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser space plane, has hit several developmental snags and has not completed the necessary preparations before flight. Dream Chaser Tenacity, while currently at the Kennedy Space Center, still has considerable progress to make before it can be integrated with its launch vehicle and perform its first flight to the International Space Station.

This final certification flight presents high stakes for an already high pressure launch schedule for Vulcan, which launched nearly five years late and under pressure from both Congress and the Department of Defense to ramp up production. During the buildup to Cert-1, questions circulated as to whether Vulcan’s launch cadence would be capable of meeting its contractual obligation— with numerous missions on the books over the next several years in support of Amazon’s Kuiper constellation and the national security sector. The market has also seen new international entrants emerge, such as the Japanese H3 and the rise of the Indian launch sector as a whole. ULA, however, has remained steadfast – moving the vehicle through its necessary paces to get it certified and delivered on time. This upcoming test of Vulcan’s abilities can be a make-or-break moment for the new launch vehicle as government and private demands for rapid access to space are only set to increase in the years to come.

Edited by Nik Alexander