{"id":21436,"date":"2025-03-23T01:49:16","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T17:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/when-will-ula-launch-this-year\/"},"modified":"2025-03-23T01:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T17:49:16","slug":"when-will-ula-launch-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/when-will-ula-launch-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"When will ULA launch this year?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/10\/1111137-Enhanced-NR.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1600\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/10\/1111137-Enhanced-NR.jpg?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/10\/1111137-Enhanced-NR.jpg?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/10\/1111137-Enhanced-NR.jpg?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/10\/1111137-Enhanced-NR.jpg?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-attachment-id=\"41588\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/_1111137-enhanced-nr\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/10\/1111137-Enhanced-NR.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"2000,1000\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"ULA Vulcan Cert-2\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\n\n<p>Image: Steven Madow \/ Space Explored<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/10\/1111137-Enhanced-NR.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243;><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\tImage: Steven Madow \/ Space Explored\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re soon closing the chapter on the first quarter of 2025, and so far the only companies in the headlines for launches have been SpaceX and Rocket Lab, with other companies like Firefly soon to follow. However, SpaceX\u2019s supposed competitor has been nowhere, still waiting on final work from the Space Force that its Vulcan rocket is cleared to launch the missions it was contracted to do. So when might ULA, Vulcan, or Atlas finally launch next?<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-43004\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-ula-finish-up-vulcan-investigation-awaits-space-force\">ULA finish up Vulcan investigation, awaits Space Force<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Vulcan\u2019s Cert-1 flight went off without a hitch, Vulcan Cert-2 suffered from an anomaly with one of its two solid rocket motors during ascent. While the mission was still deemed successful, the motor\u2019s failed nozzle led to a multi-month investigation that concluded with a full-duration test firing of a modified booster last month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cause of the anomaly was stated to be a \u201cmanufacturer defect,\u201d with no other details being shared due to proprietary information. With the new test and investigation complete, ULA now hopes for certification of Vulcan by the Space Force to be coming soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ULA\u2019s CEO, Tory Bruno, has been stating for many months at this point that Space Force certification should be coming soon. Last year, he said it would be by the end of the year, then in Q1 of 2025, first of March, and now we\u2019re nearing the end of the month and still no word from the Space Force.<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-43004',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The only information we got from the Space Force was from an unpublished report by the Department of Defense obtained by Bloomberg, stating that the department found ULA\u2019s performance last year to be \u201cunsatisfactory.\u201d An understatement if you were promised multiple National Security launches in 2024 but are still waiting for a clean bill of health in early 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ULA claims the report was \u201cinaccurate\u201d when it was written and expected certification soon (that was the March 1 date). While the rocket seems to be well-built, it did complete two successful launches, so something still seems to be holding the Space Force up in giving it the green light.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-atlas-v-still-kicking-in-final-launches\">Atlas V still kicking in final launches<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With delays to the expected USSF-106 mission, Vulcan\u2019s first National Security launch, ULA has pivoted its launch operations to ready an Atlas V for Amazon\u2019s Kuiper internet satellite service for launch. This will make the Atlas V the first launch for ULA in 2025, but no date has been given yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, teams began destacking the Vulcan rocket inside its Government Vertical Integration Facility and began stacking one of the few Atlas V\u2019s that remain for launch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Amazon is looking to launch as many as eight Atlases filled with Kuiper satellites by sometime in 2026 as it begins to build out its constellation. That doesn\u2019t include the 38 more Vulcan rockets purchased by the company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From the look at ULA\u2019s manifest, it seems that ULA only has 15 Atlas V rockets left in stock. Eight of those are for Amazon, while another six are for Boeing and its Starliner spacecraft. Those six are expected to be operational missions for NASA; however, the need for yet another test flight could throw a wrench in NASA\u2019s scheduling for crew rotations, with Starliner not being certified for flights on Vulcan\u2014at least, it\u2019s not certified yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}