After Vulcan comes online, ULA plans to dramatically increase launch cadence

Enlarge / Vulcan’s core stage is lifted into a processing facility at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in January 2023. (credit: United Launch Alliance)

The chief executive of United Launch Alliance said Thursday evening that his company now plans to fly its Vulcan rocket for the first time this May. While acknowledging that additional delays are always possible, Tory Bruno even put a date on the launch attempt—May 4.

In a wide-ranging teleconference with reporters, Bruno discussed the development of the next-generation Vulcan rocket, his plans for this year, and the future of his company.

Bruno said the rocket’s current “pacing item” for the debut launch is some final work qualifying the BE-4 rocket engines for flight. Blue Origin delivered two flight engines to ULA last fall, however, each of these machines had only undergone a fairly brief round of tests, known as acceptance testing. After this, two virtually identical BE-4 engines were sent from Blue Origin’s factory in Washington to Texas. These “qual” engines have been undergoing a much more rigorous series of tests known as qualification testing.