United Launch Alliance has scheduled its next Vulcan rocket flight for November 13, targeting a return to service nearly nine months after a solid rocket booster anomaly grounded the vehicle. The upcoming mission will lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, pending range approval, carrying 40 satellites for Amazon’s Leo broadband constellation.
Amazon Leo Constellation Deployment and the VC6L Configuration
This flight marks the fifth overall journey for the Vulcan rocket since its debut in 2024. For the first time, the vehicle will fly in the VC6L configuration, fitted with six strap-on solid rocket boosters supplied by Northrop Grumman. The payload consists of 40 production satellites for Amazon’s internet service, initiating a contract that represents the bulk of Amazon’s network deployment strategy.
Leo Vulcan 1 (LV-01) payload on the move. LV-01 is the first of 38 Leo missions on @ulalaunch’s heavy-lift Vulcan rocket, and last week, teams successfully transported the 40-satellite payload—encapsulated inside a 70-foot-tall fairing—to the new Amazon Vertical Integration… pic.twitter.com/5zXbiAmkdO
Assembly of the vehicle began on May 14 when the first stage booster was hoisted into ULA’s new Vertical Integration Facility, designated VIF-A. The payload fairing containing the satellites was moved from Amazon’s processing facility near the former shuttle landing strip to the integration building on October 21. Amazon has already assembled a second vehicle for the Vulcan Leo 2 mission inside ULA’s original integration facility.
The partnership remains crucial for Amazon’s orbital ambitions. The company previously relied on a few remaining Atlas V rockets for nine earlier missions, launching smaller batches of 29 satellites at a time. Amazon has booked 38 Vulcan flights in total to deploy its constellation.
Solid Rocket Booster Nozzle Failures and the Nine-Month Grounding
Vulcan flights ground to a halt following recurring anomalies with the Northrop Grumman-built graphite epoxy motors. During the rocket’s second flight, a nozzle disintegrated on one of the two 63XL boosters. A similar failure occurred less than 30 seconds into the fourth flight on February 12, 2026, during the USSF-87 mission.
In both instances, the methane-fueled first stage and hydrogen-fueled upper stage compensated for the asymmetric thrust, delivering their payloads to orbit. Yet, observers noticed a strange exhaust plume coming off one of the Vulcan solid rocket boosters during the liftoff of the USSF-87 flight. The United States Space Force, which certified Vulcan for national security launches in 2025 and entrusted the platform with roughly half of its major launches through the early 2030s, scrutinized the vehicle following the February booster incident.
United Launch Alliance stated that engineers made great strides in understanding the failure mechanisms. The company identified several potential contributors and implemented design and process improvements to the nozzle.
Engineering Adjustments and Ongoing Testing Protocols
To support its customers, ULA decided to fly the upcoming mission using the newly revised nozzle design. Additional testing and analysis will continue in parallel with the mission.
“The integrated team has made great strides in improving our understanding of the solid rocket booster (SRB) anomaly that occurred on the previous Vulcan flight and have identified several potential contributors which have been mitigated through design and process improvements to the nozzle,” ULA stated.
The company noted that flying the updated hardware generates vital flight data to validate the engineering changes. Space Force officials, ULA’s primary customer, are closely scrutinizing the vehicle ahead of the November launch.
Impact on Launch Cadence and Fleet Transitions
The nine-month hiatus disrupted ULA’s operational schedule for 2026. Instead of ramping up to what it had planned to be 24 launches a year from Florida, the company managed only five launches this year, consisting of one Vulcan flight and four Atlas V missions.
The launch backlog underscores the urgency of returning Vulcan to active service. The last Delta IV Heavy flew in 2024, leaving only six Atlas V rockets remaining in inventory, all of which are reserved to fly Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Furthermore, constellation deployment plans faced an additional hurdle when a launch pad blast in May destroyed the first New Glenn booster designated to transport Leo satellites.
ULA’s November 13 target date remains subject to range approval.
