Following years of development and completing a comprehensive certification plan, including two successful certification missions, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket has been certified by the United States Space Force to fly National Security Space Launch (NSSL) missions.
“Thank you to all our customer partners who have worked hand-in-hand with us throughout this comprehensive certification process. We are grateful for the collaboration and excited to reach this critical milestone in Vulcan development,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO. “Vulcan is uniquely designed to meet the challenging requirements demanded by an expanding spectrum of missions for U.S. national security space launches. Moreover, this next-generation rocket provides high performance and extreme accuracy while continuing to deliver our customers’ most challenging and exotic orbits.”
In September 2016, ULA agreed with the U.S. Air Force and outlined the plan to certify Vulcan according to the Air Force’s New Entrant Certification Guide. Over the last few years, the collective ULA and Space Force team has completed 52 certification criteria, including more than 180 discrete tasks, two certification flight demonstrations, 60 payload interface requirement verifications, 18 subsystem design and test reviews, and 114 hardware and software audits.
“The SSC and ULA teams have worked together extremely closely, and certification of this launch system is a direct result of their focus, dedication, and teamwork,” said Gen Panzenhagen, Program Executive Officer for Assured Access to Space.
“The Vulcan rocket’s inaugural launch marked the beginning of a new era of space capabilities, providing higher performance while offering the world’s only high-energy architecture rocket,” said Bruno.
Vulcan leverages the world’s highest-performing upper stage, extending ULA’s industry-leading legacy of precision. Centaur V’s flexibility and extreme endurance enable the most complex orbital insertions, providing unmatched industry capabilities. This industry-leading capability enables large NSSL spacecraft direct injection into Geosynchronous Orbit (GSO) a critical requirement supporting the country facing evolving threats from China and Russia.
“Vulcan’s Centaur upper stage is a high-velocity and maneuverable platform to address evolving on-orbit threats in this new space warfighting domain and will offer extreme on-orbit endurance and flexibility for complex orbital insertions to meet the changing landscape and requirements of our nation,” said Bruno.
Vulcan is available in four standard offering configurations, including zero, two, four, and six solid rocket booster (SRB) variants. Booster propulsion is provided by a pair of BE-4 engines, which are the most powerful liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled oxygen-rich staged combustion engines ever flown, each capable of producing 550,000 pounds of thrust. ULA’s move to this American-made engine for Vulcan concluded the United States’ reliance on the RD-180 Russian rocket engine.
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