Latest news with #Vulcan
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SpaceX knocks out another national security launch while ULA faces scrutiny
ORLANDO, Fla. — United Launch Alliance's years-long delays with its new Vulcan rocket have flipped the script for national security missions, making SpaceX the new reliable provider. The shift to Elon Musk's company at the detriment to ULA's bottom line took center stage again Friday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the GPS III-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:37 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the fourth time making a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. The mission to launch a GPS satellite was the second originally awarded to ULA but transferred to SpaceX under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract. Initially assigned to ULA's Vulcan, both a December 2024 launch and then Friday's launch were shifted to Falcon 9 as ULA faced an extended delay in certification of its replacement for both its Atlas V and Delta IV class of rockets. While called the GPS III-7 mission, it's actually the eighth of 10 satellites constructed by Lockheed Martin to add to the U.S.'s GPS capability in space. It's also part of an accelerated mission timeline laid out by the Space Force for national security missions in which payloads get to space in under three months from the decision to go, compared to the normal turnaround that can take up to 24 months. 'It highlights another instance of the Space Force's ability to complete high priority launches on a rapid timescale, which demonstrates the capability to respond to emergent constellation needs as rapidly as space vehicle readiness allows,' said Space Force Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader of launch execution with the Assured Access to Space program. The latest GPS satellites are three times more accurate and eight times more resistant to jamming than the other 38 in space already, according to the Space Force. The Department of Defense's desire to launch more effective GPS hardware, less susceptible to interference, forced the switch to SpaceX in both missions. The NSSL Phase 2 contract, which featured five years' worth of task orders announced from 2020-2024, was originally announced to give ULA 60% of the assignments. All of those were supposed to fly on Vulcan, with its first launches to be completed by summer 2022. But as Vulcan faced myriad delays, the final spate of task orders ended up putting 26 missions on ULA's plate to SpaceX's 22. Now another two of those missions have swapped from ULA to SpaceX, although the Space Force has said ULA will get back two future missions previously assigned to SpaceX. To date, ULA has only managed to fly one of those 26 missions, and that wasn't on a Vulcan. Instead ULA was forced to use one of its few remaining Atlas V rockets, which flew last summer. ULA, which is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that formed in 2006, had originally been targeting mid-2020 for Vulcan's debut. But it faced hurdles from COVID, acquisition of engines from supplier Blue Origin, delays from customer payloads and even a fiery test stand incident that all contributed to a nearly four-year slide. It flew for the first time in January 2024, but not again until that October, both as part of ULA's efforts to get national security certification. An issue with a solid rocket booster motor detaching during launch on the second flight, though, delayed that certification until March 2025. At this point, the first national security launch on Vulcan won't be until at least July, according to Major Gen. Stephen G. Purdy, the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration. Purdy, a former head of Space Launch Delta 45 based at Patrick Space Force Base, raised concerns about ULA's delays during written testimony released earlier this month to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. 'In NSSL Phase 2, the ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year,' he wrote. 'Major issues with the Vulcan have overshadowed its successful certification resulting in delays to the launch of four national security missions. Despite the retirement of highly successful Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, the transition to Vulcan has been slow and continues to impact the completion of Space Force mission objectives.' Vulcan's certification is at the point only partial, having only been signed off for five of the Space Force's nine required orbital needs, Purdy said. He did said ULA has increased its 'engineering resources and management focus to resolve design issues' while government personnel have been more involved with both technical and program management. Purdy said ULA's first national security launch on Vulcan will be USSF-106. The payload, Navigation Technology Satellite-3, is headed to geostationary orbit. Built by L3Harris, it's funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and a potential replacement technology for GPS. It was one of two task orders given to ULA in 2020 with a value of $337 million. The other, USSF-51, was the one that launched last summer on an Atlas V. With ULA dealing with a backlog of the Phase 2 contract missions, the company's piece of the next pie got smaller. Earlier this year, the Space Force announced SpaceX, not ULA, would get the majority of the Phase 3 contracts with a total of $13.7 billion to be doled out over the next five years. SpaceX would receive 28 of 54 planned missions, or 52%. Meanwhile, ULA's take is only 19 missions, or 35%, while newcomer Blue Origin would get seven, or 13%. Purdy confirmed ULA had already lost out on some Phase 3 contracts because of the Vulcan delays, and addressed what he deemed to be ULA's marching orders along with other commercial providers that have fallen short on delivery to the government. 'For these programs, the prime contractors must re-establish baselines, establish a culture of accountability, and repair trust deficit to prove to (me) that they are adopting the acquisition principles necessary to deliver capabilities at speed, on cost and on schedule,' he said ULA meanwhile is dipping its toes back into launches, lining up only its second planned mission of the year, a commercial launch for customer Amazon using another of its remaining Atlas V rockets. Following the April launch of the first mission for Amazon's Project Kuiper, an internet satellite constellation that aims to compete with SpaceX's Starlink system, the second mission is targeting liftoff no earlier than June 13. Meanwhile, SpaceX has now flown its Falcon 9 on 65 missions this year, including 44 from the Space Coast. ------------
Miami Herald
14 hours ago
- Science
- Miami Herald
SpaceX scoops up another national security launch while ULA faces scrutiny
United Launch Alliance's years-long delays with its new Vulcan rocket have flipped the script for national security missions, making SpaceX the new reliable provider. The shift to Elon Musk's company at the detriment to ULA's bottom line is on the pad again Friday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 set to launch the GPS III-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 during a window from 1:23-1:38 p.m., with a backup date on Saturday from 1:18-1:34 p.m. Space Launch Delta 45's weather squadron forecasts only a 45% chance for good conditions Friday, which only improves to 50% on Saturday. The mission to launch a GPS satellite is the second that was originally awarded to ULA but transferred to SpaceX under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract. Originally assigned to ULA's Vulcan, both a December 2024 launch and now this one were shifted to Falcon 9 as ULA faced an extended delay in certification of its replacement for both its Atlas V and Delta IV class of rockets. While called the GPS III-7 mission, it's actually flying the eighth of 10 satellites constructed by Lockheed Martin to add to the U.S.'s GPS capability in space. It's also part of an accelerated mission timeline laid out by the Space Force for national security missions in which payloads get to space in under three months from the decision to go, compared to the normal turnaround that can take up to 24 months. "It highlights another instance of the Space Force's ability to complete high priority launches on a rapid timescale, which demonstrates the capability to respond to emergent constellation needs as rapidly as space vehicle readiness allows," said Space Force Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader of launch execution with the Assured Access to Space program. The latest GPS satellites are three times more accurate and eight times more resistant to jamming than the other 38 in space already, according to the Space Force. The Department of Defense's desire to launch more effective GPS hardware, less susceptible to interference, forced the switch to SpaceX in both missions. The NSSL Phase 2 contract, which featured five years' worth of task orders announced from 2020-2024, was originally announced to give ULA 60% of the assignments. All of those were supposed to fly on Vulcan, with its first launches to be completed by summer 2022. But as Vulcan faced myriad delays, the final spate of task orders ended up putting 26 missions on ULA's plate to SpaceX's 22. Now another two of those missions have swapped from ULA to SpaceX, although the Space Force has said ULA will get back two future missions previously assigned to SpaceX. To date, ULA has only managed to fly one of those 26 missions, and that wasn't on a Vulcan. Instead ULA was forced to use one of its few remaining Atlas V rockets, which flew last summer. ULA, which is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that formed in 2006, had originally been targeting mid-2020 for Vulcan's debut. But it faced hurdles from COVID, acquisition of engines from supplier Blue Origin, delays from customer payloads and even a fiery test stand incident that all contributed to a nearly four-year slide. It flew for the first time in January 2024, but not again until that October, both as part of ULA's efforts to get national security certification. An issue with a solid rocket booster motor detaching during launch on the second flight, though, delayed that certification until March 2025. At this point, the first national security launch on Vulcan won't be until at least July, according to Major Gen. Stephen G. Purdy, the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration. Purdy, a former head of Space Launch Delta 45 based at Patrick Space Force Base, raised concerns about ULA's delays during written testimony released earlier this month to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. "In NSSL Phase 2, the ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year," he wrote. "Major issues with the Vulcan have overshadowed its successful certification resulting in delays to the launch of four national security missions. Despite the retirement of highly successful Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, the transition to Vulcan has been slow and continues to impact the completion of Space Force mission objectives." Vulcan's certification is at the point only partial, having only been signed off for five of the Space Force's nine required orbital needs, Purdy said. He did said ULA has increased its "engineering resources and management focus to resolve design issues" while government personnel have been more involved with both technical and program management. Purdy said ULA's first national security launch on Vulcan will be USSF-106. The payload, Navigation Technology Satellite-3, is headed to geostationary orbit. Built by L3Harris, it's funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and a potential replacement technology for GPS. It was one of two task orders given to ULA in 2020 with a value of $337 million. The other, USSF-51, was the one that launched last summer on an Atlas V. With ULA dealing with a backlog of the Phase 2 contract missions, the company's piece of the next pie got smaller. Earlier this year, the Space Force announced SpaceX, not ULA, would get the majority of the Phase 3 contracts with a total of $13.7 billion to be doled out over the next five years. SpaceX would receive 28 of 54 planned missions, or 52%. Meanwhile, ULA's take is only 19 missions, or 35%, while newcomer Blue Origin would get seven, or 13%. Purdy confirmed ULA had already lost out on some Phase 3 contracts because of the Vulcan delays, and addressed what he deemed to be ULA's marching orders along with other commercial providers that have fallen short on delivery to the government. "For these programs, the prime contractors must re-establish baselines, establish a culture of accountability, and repair trust deficit to prove to (me) that they are adopting the acquisition principles necessary to deliver capabilities at speed, on cost and on schedule," he said. ULA meanwhile is dipping its toes back into launches, lining up only its second planned mission of the year, a commercial launch for customer Amazon using another of its remaining Atlas V rockets. Following the April launch of the first mission for Amazon's Project Kuiper, an internet satellite constellation that aims to compete with SpaceX's Starlink system, the second mission is targeting liftoff no earlier than June 13. Meanwhile, SpaceX has already flown its Falcon 9 on 64 missions this year, including 43 from the Space Coast. ------------- Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SpaceX scoops up another national security launch while ULA faces scrutiny
United Launch Alliance's years-long delays with its new Vulcan rocket have flipped the script for national security missions, making SpaceX the new reliable provider. The shift to Elon Musk's company at the detriment to ULA's bottom line is on the pad again Friday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 set to launch the GPS III-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 during a window from 1:23-1:38 p.m., with a backup date on Saturday from 1:18-1:34 p.m. Space Launch Delta 45's weather squadron forecasts only a 45% chance for good conditions Friday, which only improves to 50% on Saturday. The mission to launch a GPS satellite is the second that was originally awarded to ULA but transferred to SpaceX under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract. Originally assigned to ULA's Vulcan, both a December 2024 launch and now this one were shifted to Falcon 9 as ULA faced an extended delay in certification of its replacement for both its Atlas V and Delta IV class of rockets. While called the GPS III-7 mission, it's actually flying the eighth of 10 satellites constructed by Lockheed Martin to add to the U.S.'s GPS capability in space. It's also part of an accelerated mission timeline laid out by the Space Force for national security missions in which payloads get to space in under three months from the decision to go, compared to the normal turnaround that can take up to 24 months. 'It highlights another instance of the Space Force's ability to complete high priority launches on a rapid timescale, which demonstrates the capability to respond to emergent constellation needs as rapidly as space vehicle readiness allows,' said Space Force Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader of launch execution with the Assured Access to Space program. The latest GPS satellites are three times more accurate and eight times more resistant to jamming than the other 38 in space already, according to the Space Force. The Department of Defense's desire to launch more effective GPS hardware, less susceptible to interference, forced the switch to SpaceX in both missions. The NSSL Phase 2 contract, which featured five years' worth of task orders announced from 2020-2024, was originally announced to give ULA 60% of the assignments. All of those were supposed to fly on Vulcan, with its first launches to be completed by summer 2022. Northrop Grumman doubles down on new rocket investment with Firefly Astronomers discover strange new celestial object in our Milky Way galaxy SpaceX gets back to work with Falcon 9 launch from KSC Space Coast launch schedule Get ready for several years of killer heat, top weather forecasters warn But as Vulcan faced myriad delays, the final spate of task orders ended up putting 26 missions on ULA's plate to SpaceX's 22. Now another two of those missions have swapped from ULA to SpaceX, although the Space Force has said ULA will get back two future missions previously assigned to SpaceX. To date, ULA has only managed to fly one of those 26 missions, and that wasn't on a Vulcan. Instead ULA was forced to use one of its few remaining Atlas V rockets, which flew last summer. ULA, which is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that formed in 2006, had originally been targeting mid-2020 for Vulcan's debut. But it faced hurdles from COVID, acquisition of engines from supplier Blue Origin, delays from customer payloads and even a fiery test stand incident that all contributed to a nearly four-year slide. It flew for the first time in January 2024, but not again until that October, both as part of ULA's efforts to get national security certification. An issue with a solid rocket booster motor detaching during launch on the second flight, though, delayed that certification until March 2025. At this point, the first national security launch on Vulcan won't be until at least July, according to Major Gen. Stephen G. Purdy, the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration. Purdy, a former head of Space Launch Delta 45 based at Patrick Space Force Base, raised concerns about ULA's delays during written testimony released earlier this month to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. 'In NSSL Phase 2, the ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year,' he wrote. 'Major issues with the Vulcan have overshadowed its successful certification resulting in delays to the launch of four national security missions. Despite the retirement of highly successful Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, the transition to Vulcan has been slow and continues to impact the completion of Space Force mission objectives.' Vulcan's certification is at the point only partial, having only been signed off for five of the Space Force's nine required orbital needs, Purdy said. He did said ULA has increased its 'engineering resources and management focus to resolve design issues' while government personnel have been more involved with both technical and program management. Purdy said ULA's first national security launch on Vulcan will be USSF-106. The payload, Navigation Technology Satellite-3, is headed to geostationary orbit. Built by L3Harris, it's funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and a potential replacement technology for GPS. It was one of two task orders given to ULA in 2020 with a value of $337 million. The other, USSF-51, was the one that launched last summer on an Atlas V. With ULA dealing with a backlog of the Phase 2 contract missions, the company's piece of the next pie got smaller. Earlier this year, the Space Force announced SpaceX, not ULA, would get the majority of the Phase 3 contracts with a total of $13.7 billion to be doled out over the next five years. SpaceX would receive 28 of 54 planned missions, or 52%. Meanwhile, ULA's take is only 19 missions, or 35%, while newcomer Blue Origin would get seven, or 13%. Purdy confirmed ULA had already lost out on some Phase 3 contracts because of the Vulcan delays, and addressed what he deemed to be ULA's marching orders along with other commercial providers that have fallen short on delivery to the government. 'For these programs, the prime contractors must re-establish baselines, establish a culture of accountability, and repair trust deficit to prove to (me) that they are adopting the acquisition principles necessary to deliver capabilities at speed, on cost and on schedule,' he said ULA meanwhile is dipping its toes back into launches, lining up only its second planned mission of the year, a commercial launch for customer Amazon using another of its remaining Atlas V rockets. Following the April launch of the first mission for Amazon's Project Kuiper, an internet satellite constellation that aims to compete with SpaceX's Starlink system, the second mission is targeting liftoff no earlier than June 13. Meanwhile, SpaceX has already flown its Falcon 9 on 64 missions this year, including 43 from the Space Coast.
Business Journals
19 hours ago
- Science
- Business Journals
Space Florida explores NASA, Space Force operations merger at Cape Canaveral
The United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket sits atop Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Northrop Grumman doubles down on new rocket investment with Firefly
Northrop Grumman and Firefly Aerospace have given a name to the future medium-lift rocket they plan to build: Eclipse. The two companies are already partnered to help shepherd a new version of Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket, which has not flown since 2023 when the company used the last of its supply of Russian-made engines for the rocket's first stage. A new version of the rocket called the Antares 330 will use seven of Texas-based Firefly's Miranda engines on a redesigned first-stage the company is also developing. Firefly's work on Antares 330 is flowing right into the design of the the larger Eclipse rocket. Northrop Grumman, which is headquartered in West Falls Church, Virginia but has facilities all over the nation including in Florida, announced it was investing a further $50 million into Firefly's development of Eclipse. The new rocket, which won't debut until at least 2026, aims to support space station resupply missions, commercial spacecraft, national security missions and scientific payloads for domestic and international markets, according to a joint press release from the two companies. Eclipse will also be bigger than Antares 330, which could only fly about 17,500 pounds of payload to low-Earth orbit. Eclipse, though, aims to increase capacity to about 36,000 pounds to low-Earth orbit, which is still smaller than the roughly 50,000-pound capacity of SpaceX's Falcon 9 and ULA's new Vulcan, which can fly up to 60,000 pounds. Firefly CEO Jason Kim said Eclipse is in a 'sweet spot' for programs like the National Security Space Launch contracts designed for higher-risk newcomers. It will also be perfect to support commercial satellite constellations, he said. Firefly has its own small-capacity rocket, Alpha, but it has seen limited success on launch. But its other space-based programs have been very accomplished so far, including the first commercial lunar landing to not tip over when its Blue Ghost competed a mission under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract. Eclipse's design is based on a combination of Antares and Alpha, and will have an 18-foot-diameter fairing similar to Falcon 9 and Vulcan. Northrop Grumman continues to fly its Cygnus resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station, but has had to hand off launch services to SpaceX until its new Antares is ready. 'Eclipse gives customers the right balance of payload capacity and affordability,' said Wendy Williams, Northrop Grumman's vice president and general manager for its launch and missile defense systems. 'Our partnership with Firefly builds on our capacity to provide crucial spaced-based communication, observation and exploration for civil and national security customers.' Both the Antares 330 and the new Eclipse rocket will launch from Virginia's Eastern Shore from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, although Firefly also has a launch lease at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Eclipse will be built in Briggs, Texas and Chandler, Arizona with qualification testing already underway. The debut of the new Antares rocket could still be this year, possibly for the next Cygnus resupply mission, NG-23, that wouldn't fly until this fall.
