The second Vulcan Centaur vehicle from United Launch Alliance (ULA) was successfully launched from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on October 4. Cert-2, the test flight, is essential to the rocket’s certification to deliver payloads related to national security. But soon after takeoff, there was an anomaly involving one of the solid rocket boosters (SRB).
At 7:25 AM Eastern, the Vulcan Centaur took off following a brief pre-launch delay for inspections. A “transient on a redundant data system” caused the first countdown hold, which was cleared before the successful liftoff, according to ULA CEO Tory Bruno’s social media post. Early in the flight, the vehicle operated as intended, although debris seems to have come off one of the two GEM 63XL SRBs.35 seconds after launch, suggesting possible damage to the booster’s nozzle.
The mission proceeded with the separation of the SRBs occurring around 30 seconds later than planned, notwithstanding the anomaly. The issue went unnoticed by ULA during the ascent, and other scheduled events—such as the engine shutdown of the Centaur upper stage—were delayed by up to 20 seconds. After the second Centaur burn, Bruno addressed the problem on a webcast, stating, “We did have an observation on SRB number one, and so we will be off looking into that after the mission is complete.” The flight was uneventful other from that.
Testing instrumentation and a mass simulator were carried on the Cert-2 mission. By year’s end, ULA hopes to get Space Force certification for the Vulcan Centaur.
