United Launch Alliance plans to return its Vulcan rocket to service on November 13, following a nine-month grounding caused by a solid rocket booster anomaly. As reported by Ars Technica, the mission is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, subject to final range approval.
Carrying Amazon Broadband Satellites
The upcoming flight will deploy 40 satellites for Amazon’s Leo broadband network. This launch represents the first of 38 scheduled Vulcan missions contracted by Amazon to launch the majority of its satellite constellation.
The return to flight follows recurring technical issues with Vulcan’s solid rocket boosters, which suffered nozzle failures during two of its first four missions, including its previous flight in February. Although the rocket successfully completed its mission objectives in both instances, the booster issues disrupted ULA’s 2026 launch timeline and reduced confidence among military officials.
Military Scrutiny and Nozzle Redesign
The U.S. Space Force, ULA’s primary customer, plans to closely monitor the upcoming mission. The Pentagon has allocated approximately half of its major launch missions to Vulcan through the early 2030s. The military officially certified the rocket for national security payloads in 2025 and completed two flights before grounding the vehicle following the February booster incident.
In a public statement, United Launch Alliance stated that engineers “made great strides” in understanding the booster failure. The company identified multiple contributing factors and addressed them by modifying both the nozzle design and manufacturing processes.
ULA explained that the November launch will fly with the updated nozzle hardware while parallel testing and analysis continue. Deploying the redesigned component will allow the company to collect operational flight data to verify the fixes for future military and commercial missions.
