ULA's Vulcan rocket fails, destroying 40 Amazon Leo satellites
The malfunction 10 minutes into Sunday's flight marks the first total mission failure in United Launch Alliance's 20-year history.
A United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket malfunctioned during its climb to space Sunday, destroying a batch of 40 Amazon Leo internet satellites and dealing a costly setback to both companies' launch schedules.
In a statement issued about 50 minutes after liftoff, ULA said the rocket, launched from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, "suffered an anomaly 10 minutes into the flight and failed to deliver the Amazon mission to orbit."
It was the first outright failure of a ULA rocket since the company, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, was formed in 2006. The cause was not immediately known, and the rocket faces a potentially lengthy grounding while engineers review telemetry.
"We will work closely with our customer and other appropriate organizations to find the cause, determine the appropriate corrective action and return to flight as quickly as possible," ULA said.
Fifth flight for Vulcan
The mission was only the fifth flight of a Vulcan rocket and the first in nine months, following work by ULA and booster supplier Northrop Grumman to resolve nozzle problems on strap-on solid-fuel boosters that marred two earlier flights. According to ULA's timeline, the six solid boosters appeared to perform normally, and the first stage's two methane-burning BE-4 engines continued the climb but appeared to fire longer than expected. Something then went wrong during the burn of the hydrogen-fueled Centaur upper stage, which had been scheduled to run for 12 minutes and 15 seconds.
Amazon, which is building Leo to compete with SpaceX's Starlink and other satellite internet providers, acknowledged the risk of a first flight. "There is risk with any launch, and that's especially true for inaugural missions like LV-01," Amazon Leo said in a post on X. "ULA has been a trusted partner for Amazon, and we believe they'll learn from this mission and deliver on their long-term plans for Vulcan."
A crowded launch manifest
Sunday's flight was the first of 38 Vulcan missions Amazon has purchased for Leo. ULA had already launched eight Leo flights using its Atlas 5 rockets. Amazon has separately booked 24 Leo launches aboard Blue Origin's New Glenn, 24 aboard Europe's Ariane 6 and 13 aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9.
More than 3,300 satellites will be needed to complete the constellation. The lost flight would have pushed the total number launched to date to 436, according to Spaceflight Now. Amazon Leo will now have to wait for ULA's failure investigation to run its course before the next Vulcan attempt.