Vulcan

United Launch Alliance expects to fly its first modified Vulcan this summer.

United Launch Alliance began planning the Vulcan modifications before a February Space Force mission anomaly involving the Vulcan booster.

United Launch Alliance plans a static fire of the modified Vulcan hardware at the end of April.

Operators that transitioned legacy licenses by the March 9, 2026 deadline include Blue Origin New Shepard, Firefly Aerospace Alpha, SpaceX Falcon 9, SpaceX Falcon Heavy, SpaceX Dragon, Rocket Lab Electron, and United Launch Alliance Atlas and Vulcan.

United Launch Alliance expects to fly its first modified Vulcan this summer.

United Launch Alliance is modifying Vulcan’s nozzle and solid rocket boosters to improve performance margins.

United Launch Alliance has already begun production of the first flight set of nozzles for the modified Vulcan.

NASA concluded that a solid rocket booster issue on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan USSF-87 mission should not affect the Northrop Grumman-made solid rocket boosters for Artemis 2.

Vulcan is grounded due to the USSF-87 SRB anomaly.

United Launch Alliance expected to perform 18 to 22 launches in 2026, with two to four Atlas 5 launches and 16 to 18 Vulcan launches.

A Vulcan launch experienced a sudden shower of sparks about 65 seconds after liftoff, and ULA observed a significant performance anomaly on one of the four solid rocket motors during that flight.

Ten months elapsed between the Cert-2 Vulcan launch in October 2024 and the next Vulcan launch in August 2025.

An Ariane 6 lifted off from French Guiana on August 12 less than 20 minutes before a Vulcan lift-off from Cape Canaveral on the same day.

The August 12 launches were the third flights for both the Ariane 6 and Vulcan launch vehicles.

The Centaur upper stage of the later Vulcan mission successfully deployed a Space Force payload into geostationary orbit despite the solid rocket motor anomaly.

A Vulcan launched from Cape Canaveral on February 12 about seven and a half hours before an Ariane 6 launch from French Guiana on the same day.

In the transition period, ULA reported a backlog of more than 80 missions, including Space Force missions and dozens of Vulcan launches booked for Amazon’s LEO broadband constellation.

Mark Peller, who had been senior vice president for Vulcan and advanced programs, was named chief operating officer of ULA in December 2025.