United Launch Alliance (ULA) will launch its strongest Vulcan rocket but as we speak (Aug. 12), and you’ll watch the liftoff reside.
ULA will launch an experimental navigation satellite tv for pc on behalf of the U.S. navy throughout a one-hour launch window that opens at 7:59 p.m. ET (2359 GMT) on Tuesday (Aug. 12). The mission will see the corporate’s highly effective new Vulcan Centaur rocket take off from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Weather forecasts predict round a 75% likelihood of favorable situations at launch time.
You can watch it reside right here on Space.com courtesy of ULA, or on the company’s YouTube. Coverage begins round 7:38 p.m. ET (2338 GMT).
Vulcan will launch with 4 side-mounted stable rocket boosters to be able to generate sufficient thrust to launch its payload instantly into geosynchronous orbit on considered one of ULA’s longest flights ever, a seven-hour journey that may span over 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers), according to ULA.
The payload launching on as we speak’s mission is the U.S. navy’s first experimental navigation satellite tv for pc to be launched in 48 years. It is what’s often known as a place, navigation and timing (PNT) satellite tv for pc, offering information just like that of the well-known GPS system.
This satellite tv for pc can be testing many experimental new applied sciences which can be designed to make it resilient to jamming and spoofing, according to Andrew Builta with L3Harris Technologies, the prime contractor for the PNT payload integrated onto a satellite bus built by Northrop Grumman.
The satellite, identified publicly only as Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), features a phased array antenna that allows it to “focus powerful beams to ground forces and combat jamming environments,” Builta said in a media roundtable on Aug. 11. GPS jamming has become an increasingly worrisome problem for both the U.S. military and commercial satellite operators, which is why this spacecraft will be conducting experiments to test how effective these new technologies are at circumventing jamming attacks.
In addition, the satellite features a software architecture that allows it to be reprogrammed while in orbit. “This is a truly game-changing capability,” Builta added.
The 202-foot (61-meter) Vulcan Centaur has made two successful flights thus far. The rocket’s first flight in January 2024 saw Vulcan launch Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander toward the moon — only for the lander to suffer an anomaly and fall back to Earth through no fault of the rocket.
The second Vulcan Centaur launch took place in October 2024 when the rocket launched a mass simulator meant to prepare it for lofting Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser space plane. That flight was supposed to launch the actual Dream Chaser, but the vehicle wasn’t ready in time.
That second flight also saw an anomaly. About 39 seconds into flight, a burst of flame and material was seen emanating from the rocket. The anomaly was later attributed to a manufacturing defect on a nozzle on one of the rocket’s solid side boosters.
Despite the anomaly during the second flight, the U.S. Space Force certified Vulcan Centaur for national security launches such as today’s mission. That brings the number of launch providers certified to launch military and spy satellites to two, the other being SpaceX.
Vulcan Centaur has already been tapped to launch over two dozen national security missions on behalf of the U.S. Space Force, according to ULA. The rocket can launch from both Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Space Force stations.