ULA Sets Nov. 13 Vulcan Return After Nine-Month Grounding

United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket is scheduled to return to flight on Nov. 13, ending a pause that began in February after a solid rocket booster nozzle failed during ascent. The mission will carry 40 Amazon Leo satellites to low-Earth orbit and will mark the first Vulcan flight to use a full complement of six solid rocket boosters.

Vulcan has been sidelined for roughly nine months since the mid-flight nozzle failure. The grounding stalled national-security launches and slowed Amazon's constellation buildout during that period.

The return-to-flight mission is set for Nov. 13 and will loft 40 Amazon Leo satellites, part of Amazon's Project Kuiper, into low-Earth orbit. The flight will be the first Vulcan to fly in the full six-booster configuration. United Launch Alliance is the operator, with Amazon as the customer for this mission.

The grounding followed a nozzle failure on one of Vulcan's solid rocket boosters during a flight in February. The return-to-flight date was reported by Air and Space Forces Magazine and Spaceflight Now.

The return-to-flight is a major test of whether ULA can recover launch cadence and clear its national-security backlog after the monthslong pause. A clean flight would restart the clock on that backlog. Another anomaly would be far harder to explain.

The next milestone is the Nov. 13 launch itself, which will demonstrate whether Vulcan can fly successfully in its six-booster configuration and resume regular operations.