ULA’s Vulcan Rocket Set for First National Security Mission
Historic Launch to End Reliance on Russian Engines & Upgrade GPS Technology






A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket is standing at Space Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, ready for its upcoming USSF-106 mission. This is the first national security launch ULA has done with the Vulcan since the rocket got approval to carry such missions for the U.S. government over four months ago.The two-stage Vulcan stands 202 feet (61 meters) tall and will send two satellites into geosynchronous orbit, flying east from Cape Canaveral. Gary Wentz, ULA’s Vice President of Government and Commercial Programs, said during a pre-launch briefing, “This is one of our longest missions ever and was specifically engineered to go directly to GEO.” He added, “It’s our 101st national security space mission, and we take pride in putting most of our country’s important satellites into orbit.”On Monday, ULA moved the rocket about a third of a mile from the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad, which took just over an hour. The planned liftoff is at 7:59 p.m. EDT (2359 UTC) during a one-hour window, with an 80% chance of good weather. Spaceflight Now will show the launch live 90 minutes before liftoff and will also cover the Ariane 6 rocket launch that follows shortly after.This is ULA’s third launch of 2025, following two Atlas V missions for Amazon’s Project Kuiper. It also marks a return to the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program for both the U.S. Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office—ULA’s first such mission since July 2024’s USSF-51. The shift away from Russian engines, following the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, led to the development of Vulcan.Colonel James Horne of the Space Force said, “With this launch, we officially end our reliance on Russian engines and ensure we have assured access to space through multiple independent providers.” Getting certified wasn’t easy—an issue with a solid rocket motor during a test in October 2024 delayed the process by months.Vulcan is now approved for “A and B” missions, but the heavier version with six solid boosters is still waiting for certification. The first flight with six boosters will help Amazon’s Kuiper network but needs more analysis before it can be used for NSSL missions.The USSF-106 mission includes two satellites—one classified and one publicly known, the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) from the Air Force Research Laboratory. The $250 million project is the first experimental navigation satellite launched in 48 years and is meant to test new technologies that could improve and secure GPS for both military and civilian use.Dr. Joanna Hicks, the principal investigator for NTS-3, said the satellite will run more than 100 experiments once it’s up and running, including advanced timekeeping, antennas that resist interference, and measures to stop GPS spoofing. Built by L3Harris Technologies using the Northrop Grumman ESPAStar platform, the satellite’s work started in 2018 and had several schedule changes before it was ready.The results from this mission could help create future generations of GPS, with Hicks suggesting possible uses across different orbits in the years to come