Vulcan Rocket Set for November 13 Return-to-Flight

United Launch Alliance (ULA) has announced its Vulcan rocket is scheduled for a return-to-flight mission on November 13. This marks the rocket's first launch in nine months, following an anomaly with a solid rocket booster that disrupted ULA's 2026 launch schedule. The upcoming mission will carry 40 satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper broadband constellation, initiating one of 38 planned Vulcan flights for Amazon.

The launch is vital for ULA, as its new flagship rocket experienced nozzle failures in two of its first four missions. Despite overcoming these issues mid-flight, the US Space Force, ULA's primary customer, has shown diminished confidence. Pentagon officials will meticulously observe this return-to-flight mission, as they have assigned roughly half of their major launches through the early 2030s to the Vulcan rocket.

ULA engineers have reportedly made significant progress in understanding the February booster anomaly, identifying potential contributors and implementing design and process improvements to the nozzle. The improved nozzle design will be utilized on this upcoming flight, with ongoing testing and analysis supporting the mission. This approach allows ULA to gather crucial flight data validating the enhancements.

The Space Force is counting on the Vulcan rocket to launch a substantial backlog of military satellites. Concurrently, Amazon's Project Kuiper, a potential competitor to SpaceX's Starlink, also has numerous broadband satellites awaiting deployment via Vulcan. Delays with ULA have prompted the Space Force to reassign six missions to SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

Brig. Gen. Eric Zarybnisky indicated that the military requires data from commercial Vulcan flights before approving national security launches. At least two Amazon Kuiper missions are scheduled before Vulcan's next national security flight. The November 13 launch is notable as it will be the first to use a full complement of six solid rocket boosters, an extended payload fairing, and a shortened Centaur upper stage.