{"id":9919,"date":"2025-02-07T23:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T15:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/ula-begins-de-stacking-vulcan-rocket-pivots-to-atlas-5-launch-of-amazons-kuiper-satellites-for-first-2025-mission\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T23:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T15:17:07","slug":"ula-begins-de-stacking-vulcan-rocket-pivots-to-atlas-5-launch-of-amazons-kuiper-satellites-for-first-2025-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/ula-begins-de-stacking-vulcan-rocket-pivots-to-atlas-5-launch-of-amazons-kuiper-satellites-for-first-2025-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"ULA begins de-stacking Vulcan rocket, pivots to Atlas 5 launch of Amazon\u2019s Kuiper satellites for first 2025 mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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United Launch Alliance (ULA) hoists its Centaur V upper stage atop the Vulcan first stage booster into the Government Vertical Integration Facility (VIF-G) at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida on Nov. 1, 2024. Image: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

United Launch Alliance is shifting its launch plans to begin 2025. On Friday, the company began de-stacking its Vulcan booster at its Government Vertical Integration Facility (VIF-G) in order to make room for an Atlas 5 rocket.<\/p>\n

Gary Wentz, vice president of Government and Commercial Programs at ULA, confirmed in an interview with Spaceflight Now that they de-stacked the Centaur upper stage and the interstage adapter last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big thing with the [USSF-106] destack is it\u2019s really demonstrating the flexibility that we\u2019ll have going forward to be able to pivot from Atlas to Vulcan back and forth in Lane-G, the traditional government lane,\u201d Wentz said, referring to launch activities using VIF-G.<\/p>\n

The shift comes as ULA continues to wait for the U.S. Space Force\u2019s Assured Access to Space (AATS) to certify its Vulcan rocket to begin launching payloads as part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program.<\/p>\n

ULA originally planned for its next launch to be the USSF-106 mission onboard a Vulcan rocket and it began stacking the vehicle in October 2024, following its second certification mission, dubbed Cert-2. Wentz said the government identified that payload as \u201ctheir highest priority mission,\u201d so they worked to get quickly ready for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stay integrated with the spacecraft teams and we were monitoring where (Amazon\u2019s) Kuiper was and where the SF-106 partner was and so we made the decision that we had a little more time there,\u201d Wentz said. \u201cWe knew we had some out-of-position work that we needed to do on the SF-106 booster. We had to replace some components and then subsequently we would retest those.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, we elected to go ahead and LVOS (Launch Vehicle on Stand) that booster to get that work off the critical path so that we\u2019re prepared to launch, whether it was 106 or Kuiper.\u201d<\/p>\n

ULA developed its Vulcan rocket with full transparency to AATS, which principally required two certification flights of the rocket before it could begin flying NSSL missions.<\/p>\n

While the Cert-1 mission was performed without issue, an anomaly occurred less than a minute into the Cert-2 flight when a piece of one of the Northrop Grumman-built Graphite-Epoxy Motor (GEM) 63XL SRBs lost part of its nozzle. In a media roundtable in December, ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno said they were still working towards determining a root cause, but said that \u201cthere are insulators that failed that are bonded to the inside of the shell that becomes the nozzle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recovered parts of those and so that was pretty fortunate for us. Gave us really quick and early insight,\u201d Bruno said. \u201cWe have a pretty good idea what happened and minor modifications that would be necessary and desired to correct that are already underway.\u201d<\/p>\n