United Launch Alliance’s 2nd Vulcan rocket arrives to Cape Canaveral

United Launch Alliance needs to launch a second Vulcan Centaur rocket before it can begin its backlog of launches for the U.S. military. The hardware for that launch arrived to Cape Canaveral this weekend.

Teams began unloading the two-stage rocket Monday from ULA’s RocketShip transport vessel docked at Port Canaveral for transport over to ULA’s facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Vulcan first stage and Centaur V upper stage made the multiday trip over river, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean from ULA’s factory in Decatur, Alabama.

The rocket is designated for the Certification-2 mission whose payload was originally supposed to be Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spacecraft. ULA has not mentioned Dream Chaser in its Cert-2 updates, though.

While Dream Chaser and its Shooting Star cargo module are already on site at nearby Kennedy Space Center, they have an undetermined amount of testing to complete before they would be ready for launch.

ULA stated it expects to fly the Cert-2 mission before October, and that could mean moving to a backup payload to be announced if necessary.

ULA needs two flights under its belt for Vulcan, its replacement or Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, before it can begin $3.1 billion worth of launches it had been awarded under National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contracts.

“This second Vulcan mission fulfills ULA’s obligations to conduct two launches for ULA’s certification process with the U.S. Space Force to carry national security payloads,” ULA posted on X.

The first mission, Certification-1, launched in January sending up to space Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lunar lander. While Peregrine ultimately had problems that took a moon landing off the board, the performance of the much-delayed Vulcan was considered a success.

ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur blasts off for 1st time in Space Coast launch

It was a launch that came three years later than ULA originally planned after a series of delays to both the rocket and the payload.

After the success, ULA was aiming to fly up Cert-2 before the end of June, but Dream Chaser didn’t arrive to KSC until the end of May, and still with a battery of tests to be done as well as work on the spacecraft’s thermal protection system.

Dream Chaser would be making its debut flight to the International Space Station joining SpaceX and Northrop Grumman as U.S.-based commercial cargo suppliers. While NASA still expects that mission to fly this year, no specific target launch date has been announced. ULA in May had said Sierra Space was asking for an early September launch date, but any delay would likely lead ULA to pivot so it could satisfy its government obligations.

ULA has 26 NSSL missions that would need to be launched by 2027. The first two missions were originally supposed to fly in 2022. Amid delays to Vulcan, at least one mission, USSF-51 for the Space Force, had to be moved to its limited remaining supply of Atlas V rockets. That one is expected to fly this summer.

Bruno said he expects ULA will hit eight launches this year still. That would include three more Vulcan launches: Cert-2 and two of the 25 other DOD missions under contract.

The company has flown three so far this year, matching its limited total from 2023. The most it has ever flown was in 16 launches back in 2009. SpaceX meanwhile has flown 43 times from the Space Coast and 64 overall including launches from California while also knocking out two test flights of its in-development Starship and Super Heavy from Texas.

ULA’s final Delta IV Heavy rocket launched earlier this year and all of the 16 remaining Atlas V rockets are assigned to either Boeing Starliner launches, Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites or a ViaSat communication satellite.

Vulcan Centaur has 38 more launches lined up to support Project Kuiper by mid-2026 as well, but Amazon still needs to complete and deliver hundreds of the final versions of the satellites before those launches can take place. Amazon expects to complete a new integration facility at KSC by the end of the year that will speed up the process, and the rate of launch on both Atlas V and Vulcan rockets is expected to pick up in 2025.

“I have the rockets. So far, the satellites are looking good,” Bruno posted on X.

To support the expected increased in launch cadence, ULA is building out a second Vertical Integration Facility at SLC-41.

“2 rockets being integrated simultaneously in the 2 VIFs,: Bruno posted. “They take turns rolling down to the pad and launching. With 2 VIFS, you immediately double launch rate from historical capacity. Supported by higher factory rates, takes you to 25+ per year. Just need the satellites…”