Vulcan

ULA completed six launches in 2025, including five Atlas 5 missions and one Vulcan mission in August.

The Space Force will not launch national security payloads on Vulcan until the investigation into the Vulcan anomaly is complete and the cause is corrected.

The ULA Vulcan, Arianespace Ariane 6, and Blue Origin New Glenn heavy-lift rockets faced development delays as of early 2026.

Amazon originally booked 77 launches with United Launch Alliance (Vulcan), Arianespace (Ariane 6), and Blue Origin (New Glenn).

SpaceShip will join RocketShip in transporting Atlas V and Vulcan rockets from the factory to launch sites.

RocketShip is a ULA rocket transport vessel that transports Atlas V and Vulcan rockets from the factory to launch sites.

SpaceShip is larger than RocketShip, enabling it to carry two full Vulcan rockets.

A similar GEM-63XL anomaly occurred in October 2024 during Vulcan’s second certification test flight.

The U.S. Space Force has suspended launches of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket under the National Security Space Launch program while investigating and fixing an anomaly related to the Northrop Grumman GEM-63XL solid rocket motor.

Amazon Leo depends on Blue Origin’s New Glenn and ULA’s Vulcan and booked additional launches with SpaceX to maintain its FCC license timeline.

The USSF-87 flight represented the second operational national security mission for the Vulcan Centaur rocket following its NSSL certification and the USSF-106 mission in August 2025.

If the investigation confirms a manufacturing defect in Vulcan’s core or upper stage, the March liftoff from Cape Canaveral may be postponed.

The U.S. Space Force has exchanged GPS missions between Vulcan and Falcon 9 to maintain orbital replenishment schedules.

Tory Bruno served as CEO of United Launch Alliance for over 11 years and oversaw development of the Vulcan Centaur rocket.

United Launch Alliance initially designed the Vulcan launch vehicle to be totally expendable.

The analysis critiques United Launch Alliance’s initial expendable design choice for Vulcan as limiting its competitiveness against reuse architectures.

The Vulcan flight was the second flight of a Vulcan booster.

Beyond Gravity manufactured load-bearing structures between the rocket stages used on the Vulcan mission.