ULA’s Tory Bruno lays out plans for ramping up launch cadence – Spaceflight Now

United Launch Alliance is on the cusp of a big milestone for its Vulcan rocket. The 202-foot-tall (61 m) launch automobile is poised to take flight on its first nationwide safety mission as quickly as Tuesday, August 12.

Atop the two-stage rocket are a pair of missions for which might be a part of the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program. The launch would be the first post-certification flight for a Vulcan rocket.

“This is a pretty important event for the company and for the capability, but also for all of us personally. This is the inaugural launch of Vulcan into national security space. It is what we designed this rocket to do,” stated ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno throughout an audio roundtable with studies on Aug. 7.

“This particular mission is interesting to us because while, if you were picking, you might choose to start with a more plain vanilla mission, this is, in fact, the anchor case that drove the design and the architecture of the whole rocket,” Bruno added. “This is the tough mission, directly injected to GSO, geosynchronous orbit. It makes it one of our longest duration missions ever.”

ULA hoped to launch this mission, dubbed United States Space Force (USSF)-106, a lot sooner than now, but it surely confronted setbacks, partly because of a strong rocket motor (SRM) anomaly in the course of the second of two certification flights in 2024, partly because of that second certification mission being delayed by lack of readiness for Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane and likewise because of delays with the U.S.-106 payloads.

The army satellites encapsulated inside Vulcan’s payload fairing have been delivered to the Government Vertical Integration Facility (VIF-G) at Space Launch Complex 41 close to the top of July to finish the rocket stack. In the approaching days, it is going to be rolled out to the launch pad for remaining, prelaunch preparations.

USSF-106 is the primary of 9 deliberate missions that Bruno stated ULA goals to realize earlier than the top of the yr. These might be a mixture of business and authorities clients with a number of the former flying on Atlas 5 rockets.

“We have a stockpile of both Atlases and Vulcans fully built, ready to fly. So that is another thing that sort of kicks up that confidence higher than it would’ve been, say, if you’d asked me a question like that last year,” Bruno stated in response to a reporter query about his confidence in flying 9 extra occasions in 2025. “There are 13 Atlases to go. All but the last two are fully finished and literally in storage, some at the Cape, some still back at Decatur, and those last two will be finished shortly.”

The remaining Atlas 5 rockets are allotted as follows (not so as of deliberate launch):

• 7 – Amazon’s Project Kuiper (as much as 27 satellites per rocket)
• 6 – Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft (for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program)
• 1 – Viasat’s ViaSat-3 F2 satellite tv for pc (anticipated to reach in Florida by finish of September 2025)

ULA’s objective is to realize a cadence of two launches monthly by the top of the yr after which prolong that out to 2026 and past.

“We’ve got almost half a dozen Vulcans fabricated in storage, waiting to go as well and lots and lots of SRMs, up into the 40s,” Bruno stated. “So that helps us with that.”

Enter NSSL missions

The forthcoming launch of USSF-106 is the primary of a slate of 26 missions awarded to ULA as a part of the NSSL Phase 2 contract price $4.5 billion. Once upon a time, USSF-51 would’ve been the primary NSSL launch on a Vulcan rocket, however that mission was moved to an Atlas 5 that flew from SLC-41 on July 30, 2024.

Bruno beforehand stated that its 2025 manifest, following a pair of Atlas 5 launches for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband web constellation, would see the flights of USSF-106 after which USSF-87. On Thursday although, he steered that there could also be another flights in-between.

“[USSF-87] is the very next Space Force mission and, depending on when it happens, there may or may not be Atlases in between, flying for commercial customers,” Bruno stated. Those would both be Amazon or Viasat, since NASA leaders beforehand stated the subsequent launch of Starliner received’t come till a minimum of early 2026.

Major General Purdy, thanks for dropping by the Cape final week! Means so much to our of us. We are very excited to carry Vulcan into service. pic.twitter.com/BMzapGsxjc

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) July 30, 2025

Bruno and ULA have long-since marketed the Vulcan rocket as a major candidate for the Department of Defense and different authorities clients, given its means to fly to “exotic orbits that are primarily for the government.” He pointed to the “very, very long-duration mission” of USSF-106 as a major instance.

“You can’t do that mission in less than about seven hours, including the disposal activities, and they often run longer than that,” Bruno stated. “I can’t say the duration of this one yet because the customer, I don’t believe, has released that, but it’s not uncommon for a mission like that. Seven, eight hours and you want to take a lot of mass to that very difficult orbit that requires burns at the end of that duration.”

Bruno argued {that a} Vulcan rocket, with its single core booster, was designed to ship its Centaur higher stage additional into house with its propellant nonetheless at full capability to permit for missions with these lengthy coasts and a number of burns. He stated at that time, it’s prudent to have as gentle of a automobile as doable, which Bruno argues made the case for utilizing a mix of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.

“When you design a rocket, you’re going to pick the orbit you want to be most efficient for and it will drive your architecture. This literally is that mission,” Bruno stated. “Our very first mission will be that bounding case.”

Future progress – guarantees and perils

The subsequent few years might be largely pushed by launches of ULA’s Vulcan rocket. Amazon will pretty rapidly transfer by means of its out there Atlas 5 rocket launches to get its Kuiper constellation on orbit as quickly as doable and Viasat might be launching its satellite tv for pc to a geostationary Earth orbit quickly too.

That leaves simply Boeing and Starliner, which might be pushed by a mix of NASA’s confidence to fly it once more with crew on board and the manifest of the International Space Station in its remaining 5 years of life.

Bruno stated ULA is about 76 % by means of constructing out Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to accommodate Vulcan rocket launches. He stated getting that completed has been “a little bit of a battle.”

For the VSFB SLC3 followers: 76% full! Expect to have the ability to certify b4 yr finish. Been a journey… Industry broad scarcity of Trades individuals, crucial elements, and gear. Battled by means of all of that and over the hump. Whew! pic.twitter.com/QEixktwdd6

— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) July 30, 2025

“It has experienced shortages in trades people, so structural welders, pipe fitters who do cryogenic plumbing, so not the average plumber, if you will. Even the electricians. We use very, very high power, so it’s not like an electrician you would use in your home or even a typical in industrial application,” Bruno stated,.

“It’s been a challenge that we’ve gotten over the hump and we’re now coming in on closing it.”

Bruno stated SLC-3 might be licensed earlier than the top of the yr after which it is going to be as much as their authorities clients to find out when the primary launch from that California pad will happen.

Meanwhile, over at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, work is sort of completed on their second VIF, dubbed VIF-A, which is able to deal with integration of Vulcan rockets for business clients, like Amazon.

“We’ll probably see those first flights for Amazon on Vulcan and we’ll hope to accomplish that and be flying for them this year,” Bruno stated. “The specific dates of those, they’ll announce when they’re ready to announce them.”

ULA aren’t the one youngsters on the block who’re rising and increasing operations on the Cape. This week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) printed the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for SpaceX’s proposal to launch as much as 44 occasions from Launch Complex 39A utilizing its Starship-Super Heavy rocket (collectively often known as Starship.

SpaceX is hoping to get the inexperienced gentle to conduct as much as 88 landings of the primary and second phases of that rocket, along with the static hearth checks of each that might be wanted forward of integration and flight.

Every time Starship lights its engines, it’ll require an enormous clearance throughout the Florida spaceport, which as offered, would come with LC-39B and SLC-41. Separately, the Department of the Air Force is contemplating SpaceX’s proposal to conduct as much as 76 launches and 152 landings at SLC-37, which might function two launch towers, if accredited.

“Starship is an interesting vehicle, in that it’s not just another rocket on the range. It is of an unprecedented size and the request that has been put in for the license is at a very, very high launch rate,” Bruno stated. “We’re counting on the Space Force and the FAA to do a very thorough analysis of that and how it will affect not just the ecological environment, but also the launch environment.”

The public remark interval for the proposal at SLC-37 closed on July 28, 2025, and the Air Force is sifting by means of these as a part of its remaining evaluation. It will concern its remaining EIS on that pad someday within the Fall together with a file of resolution.

Meanwhile, the FAA will proceed gathering public ideas on the LC-39A proposal by means of a 45-day remark interval and a sequence of public conferences in late August and early September. Those could be folded right into a remaining EIS issued at a later time.

“There are certain operations you can’t do on your pad when another vehicle is fueled, due to the energetics that are associated with that and that’s part of what the range has to do in directing traffic with the multiple users that are there now,” Bruno stated. “This new person might be, as I stated, unprecedented. It’s a lot bigger than a Saturn 5. It is one thing that’s not been on the vary earlier than, so they should do a really thorough and cautious evaluation of that.

“We’re counting on them to do it so that we can all use the range, that the capacity of our nation is greater and not smaller.”