ULA needs to launch a second Vulcan rocket

A great example of this from this week is United Launch Alliance’s Cert-2 mission.

If you’re into space, hearing CEO Tory Bruno announce that United Launch Alliance will take the plunge and launch the Cert-2 program without a customer payload is a crazy announcement. Aren’t rockets expensive, after all? Don’t rockets often wait months or even years for a spacecraft to be ready for launch? Why are we sending them into space? An empty $100 million Vulcan rocket in orbit with no one paying for it, especially since ULA has sold over 70 launches to customers?

The simple answer is that Cert-2 has a client: the Pentagon. But let’s unpack that.

The tasks of national security are: The most profitable launch contracts, amounting to billions of dollars annually in missile orders. Some are low-cost experimental missions, but the vast majority are expensive, top-secret satellites that the Pentagon doesn’t want to let anyone fly. Enter the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program.

ULA and SpaceX are already in the NSSL program, but any time they bring a new rocket to market, the Space Force requires that specific order. The rocket was successfully launched before it was certified for flight on the NSSL mission. Hence the name of the second Vulcan mission, SIRT-2. The rocket It was first launched in JanuaryWhich was the first step towards obtaining the certificate.

“What the Space Force is seeking to see with Cert-2 is another successful flight just like Cert-1,” Bruno said during a press conference on Wednesday.

After Cert-2, ULA will send the Space Force “gigabytes of data for all the hardware on every part of the rocket,” Bruno said, and assuming they “don’t find any surprises,” Vulcan will be ready to start launching NSSL missions.

ULA had planned to fly Sierra Space’s inaugural Dream Chaser cargo plane on Cert-2, but Bruno said the latter company’s CEO Tom Weiss “felt that he was putting too much of a risk on the schedule against my needs.” The Dream Chaser is being replaced by an “inert payload,” also known as a “mass simulator” (think a big block of concrete and metal), so that Cert-2 can launch by September.

Why the rush?

Well, the Pentagon has already purchased a full complement of Vulcan launches, and expects to fly two of those missions — USSF-106 and USSF-87 — before the end of the year. Already, Air Force top brass Frank Calvelli has been lobbying Bruno and the ULA. Message sent last month To the rocket company’s owners, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, they expressed concern “due to Vulcan delays.” As announced by the Air Force ULA finedfor an undisclosed amount, due to Vulcan delays.

One question mark that hung over the next three Vulcan missions has been at least largely settled: Blue Origin’s ability to deliver BE-4 rocket engines. The company has delivered to ULA the six engines needed for the three launches, and Bruno noted that he has “much more confidence” in the relationship. A year ago that wasn’t the case, Bruno said, noting that his company had a “huge concern” about securing the engines ULA needed. That was when Blue Origin had BE-4 engine explodes during acceptance test – Custom engine for Cert-2 launch.

Delivering the BE-4 engines on time is even more important next year, as Bruno expects ULA to launch 20 times in 2025, half on Atlas V rockets and half on Vulcan rockets. The company has a total of 16 Atlas V rockets left to launch before they are all on Vulcan.

The Pentagon is ULA’s most important client. So, while the Army may not pay for Cert-2 directly, the backlog of NSSL orders is why ULA is willing to pay out of its own pocket to get the job started.

Oh, and there’s another open question about The long-rumoured ULA saleI thought, as did others, that Vulcan’s successful debut earlier this year would seal the deal. In addition, Jeff Bezos Inc A wide range of stock sales Earlier this year he made Blue Origin look like the likely winner. I’m speculating, but whoever wants to buy ULA might wait until after Cert-2 — or perhaps a more friendly FTC if there’s a change in the White House in November.