Video: Vulcan rocket glitches during launch, company calls it a success

A potential glitch with one of Vulcan Centaur's solid rocket boosters emerged during United Launch Alliance (ULA) latest test flight aimed at finalising its certification process.

In Short

• Vulcan Centaur launched from Florida with a booster anomaly
• Launch delayed briefly due to data system issue, then proceeded
• Anomaly observed in booster 1, affecting post-launch timings

The second Vulcan Centaur of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) was lifted off on Thursday from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, but appeared to suffer an anomaly in one of its two solid-propellant strap-on boosters.

The lift-off occurred following a minor delay, as the team extended pre-launch checks. The first countdown was halted with just 1 minute and 51 seconds remaining for the launch due to a "transient on a redundant data system," according to ULA's chief executive Tory Bruno. Controllers quickly addressed the issue, resetting the countdown for a second attempt that successfully resulted in the rocket's launch.

Roughly 35 seconds into the flight, material appeared to come off one of the boosters, and its plume changed, indicating possible damage to the nozzle of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs).

While ULA did not address the minor malfunction during the ascent, the event affected the timing of certain key post-launch stages. Notably, the separation of the GEM 63XL solid rocket boosters took place about 30 seconds later than the pre-launch timeline, and other milestones were delayed by up to 20 seconds.

Despite these discrepancies, ULA reported that the Vulcan Centaur’s early flight stages were nominal. "The trajectory was nominal throughout," Bruno said on the company's launch website. "We did, however, have an observation on SRB No. 1, so we will be off looking at that after the mission is complete".

The launch, dubbed as the Cert-2 mission, was primarily a test flight, carrying only a mass simulator and instrumentation. Originally, Sierra Space's Dream Chaser spaceplane was slated for the flight but was replaced by an inert payload in June due to scheduling issues with the spaceplane's readiness, Space News reported.

With the recent launch, ULA aims to meet key flight test requirements and finalise its certification process with the US Space Force. The Space Force mandates two successful verification flights before allowing the Vulcan rocket to carry national security payloads.