ULA aimed to launch up to 10 Vulcan rockets this year—it will fly just once

According to Bruno, engineers traced the problem to a manufacturing defect in an insulator on the solid rocket motor, and telemetry data from all four boosters on the following flight in August demonstrated “spot-on” performance. But officials decided to recover the spent motor casings from the Atlantic Ocean for inspection to confirm that there were no other surprises or close calls.

Hangup delaying next Vulcan launch The rocket is not in production. ULA has hardware for several Vulcan rockets at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Instead, a major reason for Vulcan’s previous delays has been the performance of the rocket, particularly its solid rocket booster. It’s unclear whether the latest delay is related to preparations for the Space Force’s GSSAP satellites (the next GPS satellite to fly on Vulcan is available for launch in 2022), inspections of Vulcan’s solid rocket motors, or something else.

A Space Systems Command spokesperson told Ars that “appropriate actions are being taken to ensure a successful USSF-87 mission… Teams analyze all hardware from past missions as well as available data to evaluate the spaceflight eligibility of future missions.”

The spokesperson did not provide a specific answer to a question from Ars about the observations on the solid rocket motors from the latest Vulcan flight.

ULA’s provision of a new rocket assembly hangar and a second mobile launch platform for the Vulcan rocket at Cape Canaveral has also seen delays. With so many launches in its backlog, ULA needs the ability to stack and prepare at least two rockets in different buildings at the same time. Ultimately, the company aims to launch clips an average of twice per month.

On Monday, ground crews at Cape Canaveral moved the second Vulcan launch platform to the company’s launch pad for fit checks and “initial technical testing.” This is a good sign that the company is getting closer to increasing the Vulcan launch cadence, but it is now clear that will not happen this year.

Vulcan’s slow launch rate since its first flight in January 2024 is not unusual for new rockets. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and ULA’s Atlas V took 28 months to reach their fourth flights, with the Vulcan vehicle arriving in May 2026.

ULA’s Delta IV rocket completed its fourth mission in 2002, 25 months after debut. Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket reached its fourth flight in 16 months, but it has more in common with its predecessor than others. SpaceX’s Starship also grew rapidly, with its fourth test flight less than 14 months after the first.