U.S. Space Systems Command chief: First Vulcan national security launch is “weeks” away

Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant addresses ASCEND attendees. Credit: AIAA/David Becker

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AIAA ASCEND, Las Vegas — The highly anticipated first launch of a U.S. national security payload aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket is at last on the horizon, according to the leader of U.S. Space Systems Command.

“We anticipate a launch here in a couple of weeks,” Space Force Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant told reporters during a roundtable following his morning keynote here. He deferred to ULA as to the specific pre-launch tasks that are dictating the schedule, but “I will tell you that the readiness reviews are proceeding very well” and “we are burning down through the risks.”

The mission, USSF-106, would be the third flight of a Vulcan and the first since October. Because Vulcan is a brand new design, the Space Force required ULA to complete two certification flights before approving the rockets to carry satellites for the military and intelligence community under Phase 2 of its National Security Space Launch, or NSSL, program. Shortly after a Vulcan lifted off for that second flight, Cert-2, the nozzle of one of the rocket’s solid rocket boosters fell off. ULA said it was able to complete the flight as planned and later traced the nozzle issue to a “manufacturing defect.”

“We have isolated the root cause and made appropriate corrective actions,” CEO Tory Bruno told reporters during a March roundtable. Those included a static fire test with an identical motor by the booster’s manufacturer, Northrop Grumman.

Vulcan is the first of a new generation of rockets, including Blue Origin’s New Glenn, that Space Force anticipates certifying in the coming years. Asked about specific lessons from that process, Garrant pointed to the importance of a close working relationship between Space Force and the contractor.

“It’s the really tight connection with the teams, both the government and the launch provider that make us successful in working through those risks,” he said.

He added that he anticipates Vulcan conducting at least one more national security launch this year.

For the next round of NSSL, Phase 3, Space Force created a lane for launch vehicle operators to compete to launch payloads that the service considers to be lower risk.

“There’s absolutely interest in supporting as many of these launch providers as we can,” Garrant said, but he noted that “there is a limitation” in how many launches can be conducted with the current infrastructure in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and in California at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Among the solutions being assessed is whether new launchpads could be added to those bases, but that might not be enough, Garrant said. “We need to really get after a digital launch infrastructure, if you will, to automate as much as we can” to allow for more frequent launches.