A new player with a deep pedigree entered the field of national security in August 2025 with the deployment of payloads including an experimental navigation satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket.
ULA, a joint venture of military contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing, had experienced a series of delays in Vulcan’s certification for military use. Two successful test launches in 2024 finally satisfied concerns, and the rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, carrying U.S. Space Force mission USSF-106 to geosynchronous orbit (GEO).
Vulcan’s Centaur upper stage ignited its engines repeatedly to maneuver and deploy its payloads into GEO, some 36,000 kilometers over the equator. One payload is both a precursor to a more robust GPS system and the nation’s first on-orbit experiment for position, navigation and timing in nearly five decades, Aviation Weekly reported. No information was released on other payloads.
The Space Force has selected Vulcan to launch more than half its national security missions in the coming years, with SpaceX picking up the balance. Launch directors are working through a backlog of more than 70 Vulcan launches under contract, most for the service’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program and to orbit the Amazon Project Kuiper satellite broadband network, the technology news site Ars Technica reported.
“It’s an exciting day for us as we launched the first NSSL flight of Vulcan, an outstanding achievement for United Launch Alliance and the nation’s strategic space lift capability,” said Col. Jim Horne, USSF-106 mission director. “This is an important milestone for the Space Force and all involved.”