ULA Launches First U.S. Space Force Mission On Vulcan Rocket

United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched its Vulcan rocket on Aug. 12, marking the launch vehicle’s first deployment of 2025 and its first mission for the U.S. Space Force.

Liftoff occurred at 8:56 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Four strap-on Northrop Grumman-built GEM 63XL solid rocket boosters burned for approximately 90 sec. and then separated, ULA said in a statement. The methane-fueled first stage powered by a pair of Blue Origin BE-4 engines, fired for another 3.5 min. before separating, leaving the Centaur V upper stage to deliver a pair of military spacecraft into geosynchronous orbits 22,300 mi. above the equator.

The multi-manifest USSF-106 mission includes the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) experiment developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and L3Harris Technologies, and one undisclosed payload.

The launch is significant as it marks ULA’s return to servicing the Defense Department’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, nearly one year after an Atlas V rocket carried a national security payload for the final time in July 2024. The Space Force can now call on both Vulcan and SpaceX’s Falcon family of rockets to provide launch services for future NSSL missions. Blue Origin’s New Glenn heavy-launch vehicle is awaiting NSSL certification.

It also marks the first Vulcan launch using four boosters instead of two, and by filling the upper stage to 100% full, rather than 85% as was previously the case.

With a direct injection to geosynchronous orbit, it will mark one of ULA’s longest- duration missions ever, CEO Tory Bruno told reporters on Aug. 8. Such missions typically take about 7 hr. and often longer, he noted. USSF-106 is “the quintessential example” of the types of U.S. government missions that Vulcan was designed to support, he added.

ULA completed two certification flights for Vulcan on Jan. 8 and Oct. 4, 2024, leading up to its qualification to lift national security space missions. During the Cert-2 launch, the rocket suffered an anomaly when a nozzle on one of the two solid rocket boosters was released, resulting in a loss of thrust and a modest reduction in total impulse. Despite the anomaly, ULA was able to continue the mission and nailed its target orbit. But the incident delayed Vulcan’s certification for NSSL missions until March 26.

The launch vehicle’s six-booster variant remains to be certified, Space Force Col. James Horne, USSF-106 mission director and senior materiel leader at Space Systems Command, said in an Aug. 11 media briefing. That variant will launch for the first time carrying 45 satellites for Amazon’s Kuiper constellation to low Earth orbit, which is expected to occur by the end of 2025, Bruno said. The Kuiper launch will count toward the “Heavy” version’s certification process, but the Space Force will require further analysis and certification activities, Horne said.

ULA expects to launch at least nine more missions before year’s end using both its Vulcan and Atlas vehicles, pending unforeseen adjustments to launch schedules. Roughly two-thirds of those missions will support Kuiper launches, and the other third will be NSSL missions, Bruno said.

By year’s end, the company expects to launch twice a month, and to keep up that tempo through the next two years into 2027. Bruno said they expect to fly 25-26 missions annually in the next two years. The 2025 manifest is fully booked, while 2026 is “pretty crowded,” he said. “We’re in that good problem to have, of having more customers wanting to ride on this rocket than is easy to accommodate.”