Vulcan launch delayed to 2024, concluding ULA’s year at three launches

In a post on social media, ULA CEO Tory Bruno shared that the launch date for the company’s new rocket, Vulcan, has been delayed to NET January 8. This comes after a wet dress rehearsal that wasn’t completed in full due to ground system faults. Another dress rehearsal will be required before launch.

Vulcan Cert-1 delayed to 2024

On Friday, ULA conducted a wet dress rehearsal on its flight ready Vulcan rocket. With all the parts now in Florida, including the payload, ULA was hoping to complete this step and move forward with a launch in just a couple of weeks.

However, it turns out ULA’s ground services infrastructure was not ready for the launch, as it will be the reason Vulcan won’t be flying this year.

In a post on X, CEO Tory Bruno shared the results of Friday’s dress rehearsal by saying, “Vehicle performed well. Ground system had a couple of (routine) issues, (being corrected). Ran the timeline long so we didn’t quite finish. I’d like a FULL WDR before our first flight, so XMAS eve is likely out. Next Peregrine window is 8 Jan.”

So while the rocket, that has already undergone several rehearsals and a test firing of the two Blue Origin BE-4 engines, might be ready. Some piece of equipment at SLC-41, the dual pad for both Vulcan and the Atlas V is not.

ULA was attempting a Christmas Eve launch attempt but that is now moved to January 8. Bruno shared in a reply to the original post that January’s launch window looks to be four days long, rather than December’s three days.

Because of Peregrine, the lunar lander by Astrobotic that is Vulcan’s first payload, has specific requirements for when it arrives at the Moon, ULA has equally specific launch windows. Luckily there are windows occurring each month.

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ULA concludes 2023 launch year with only three missions

With this delay comes the conclusion of ULA’s 2023 launch schedule. Shockingly, the company was only able to give three missions off the ground, it’s lowest since 2006 when the company was created.

Compare this to SpaceX, its biggest competitor, who has 90 Falcon rocket launches to its name in 2023.

However, ULA’s year was full of delays as it focused on getting Vulcan ready to fly. What was suppose to be a launch over the summer turned into a winter flight after a failure of a Centaur V second stage on a test stand. That required the flight ready Centaur V be returned to ULA’s factory in Alabama and rebuilt.

ULA is expected to launch on a much more regular pace in the coming years as it has gained a large number of commercial contracts from various sources, most notably Amazon.

Bruno has stated in past interviews that the company has moved to relying less on government contracts and almost having a 50/50 split between government and commercial launch contracts for Vulcan. It hopes to eventually launch every two weeks.

In 2024, the Atlas V should make a great run of launches for Amazon’s Kuiper satellites before Vulcan gears up for regular operations. However, we’ll have to wait and see if ULA will be able to meet Amazon’s demands ahead of a pending FCC deadline in July 2026.