spacetoday.net: Vulcan Centaur certified for national security launches

Vulcan Centaur certified for national security launches

Posted: Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 9:10 AM ET (1310 GMT)
The U.S. Space Force has finally certified ULA's Vulcan Centaur for national security launches. The service's Space Systems Command (SSC) announced Wednesday it completed certification of Vulcan, allowing the rocket to perform launches under its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contract. The certification came after various reviews, including of data from two certification launches. That also involved an investigation into an anomaly during the second Vulcan launch where the nozzle on one of two solid rocket boosters fell off, a problem traced to a manufacturing defect in one component of the booster. SSC said the first Vulcan NSSL launch would take place in the summer.