ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket lifts off for its first national security launch

CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — The United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket made its first national security launch on Tuesday night.

Vulcan Centaur took off with the USSF-106 mission from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, confirmed ULA, which is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

The one-hour launch window opened at 7:59 p.m. ET, but the ULA rocket took off at 8:56 p.m. ET. 

Ahead of liftoff, the 45th Weather Squadron gave an 80% chance of good conditions with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule.  

Unlike SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the Vulcan Centaur is not reusable, meaning it will not be landing on a droneship or landing pad.

The Vulcan is the booster while the Centaur is the second stage.

About the mission

This Vulcan will be launching the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-106 satellite, stated the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command.  

This is the Vulcan Centaur rocket’s first mission for the U.S. Space Force and Space System Command.

The satellite, which will be in a geosynchronous orbit, will be going through the paces in a series of tests.

“The primary payload on USSF-106 is the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), an Air Force Vanguard program experiment provided by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and built by L3Harris Technologies. NTS-3 will demonstrate an agile positioning, navigation and timing payload at near-geosynchronous orbit, and is part of an effort to achieve a more robust, resilient and responsive PNT architecture. It will demonstrate this through flexible reprogrammable signals, an electronically steerable antenna, and advanced timekeeping algorithms,” explained the Space Systems Command in a press release.

The Air Force Research Laboratory explained that the satellite will broadcast navigation signals and can change signals to a certain point on Earth without moving the NTS-3.

“These signals are created through a digital, on orbit reprogrammable PNT signal generator, which not only supports legacy signals and advanced signals not currently broadcast on GPS, but also allows new signal updates after launch,” noted the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The NTS-3 will also test signal authentication protocol of satellite orbit data and measurements.

Watch the launch