Cert-2: ULA Launches New Vulcan Centaur Rocket On Certification Flight Mission

United Launch Alliance (ULA) launched its new Vulcan Centaur rocket, the successor to the company's workhorse Atlas V, from Space Launch Complex(SLC-41), Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1125 UTC on Thursday(Oct. 4). Cert-2 mission "has literally one primary objective, which is to go fly a second time and have another success," CEO Tory Bruno told reporters in a prelaunch briefing on Wednesday; as the company works to be certified for use on national security missions.

The rocket jettisoned its two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) around two minutes after liftoff, and successfully completed stage separation about three minutes after that.

There was a burst of material from the rocket about 39 seconds after liftoff, as seen on the livestream, due to a failed nozzle on one of the SRBs, Bruno explained in a series of X posts after liftoff.

The test flight's objective was however apparently achieved," Bruno wrote on X. "Rocket compensated, as designed. Nominal trajectory. Bullseye insertion."

The Centaur V upper stage conducted two long engine burns as planned, the second ending about 35 minutes after liftoff, bringing the main Cert-2 mission to an end. "We're going to conduct a few maneuvers with the upper stage, just to learn better how it behaves in those types of maneuvers, and also to give us more time with the [onboard] experiments," Bruno said in Wednesday's briefing.

Those maneuvers and experiments could inform the development of a future version of the Centaur V.

The Centaur V will head to a disposal orbit around the sun after completing those extra maneuvers and experiments, Bruno said said  The stage will then be "passivated" -- drained of propellant and battery power until it's an inert hunk of metal.

ULA will analyze the Cert-2 flight data, then hand that information over to Space Force officials who will perform their own examination, Bruno said. Certification could follow relatively soon after.

"If the mission is very clean, like the Cert-1 mission, that goes pretty quickly," Bruno said on Wednesday. "I mean, that'll be done in weeks, not months."

ULA had to foot the entire bill for Cert-2 which is in "high tens of millions of dollars," according to Bruno; because it didn't carry customer payload. Dream Chaser, a robotic space plane built by the Colorado company Sierra Space, was supposed to fly on this mission; but it wasn't ready in time for liftoff. Cert-2 instead, carried an inert "mass simulator" and a set of ULA's own rocket-monitoring instruments.

According to Bruno, ULA will analyze the Cert-2 flight data, then hand that information over to Space Force officials who will perform their own examination. Certification could follow relatively soon after.

"If the mission is very clean, like the Cert-1 mission, that goes pretty quickly," Bruno said on Wednesday. "I mean, that'll be done in weeks, not months."