United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket suffered an anomaly about 10 minutes after liftoff on Sunday and failed to place 40 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit, marking an Amazon satellite launch setback ULA after a flight from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. ULA said it would work with Amazon Leo and other organizations to find the cause and return the vehicle to flight.
Sunday launch from Space Launch Complex 41
ULA said the vehicle launched from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station before the anomaly interrupted the mission. The company said, "Based on data received by our Launch Director, we confirm that the Vulcan vehicle launched from Space Launch Complex 41 (at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station) suffered an anomaly 10 minutes into the flight and failed to deliver the Amazon mission to orbit,"
The rocket was carrying 40 Amazon Leo internet satellites. Sunday’s flight would have pushed the total number of Leo satellites launched to date to 436, but the payload did not reach orbit.
Amazon Leo’s launch plan
The mission was the first of 38 Vulcan flights Amazon purchased for its Leo satellites. ULA had already launched eight Leo flights using Atlas 5 rockets, and Amazon has also booked 24 Leo launches aboard New Glenn, 24 aboard European Ariane 6, and 13 aboard Falcon 9.
More than 3,300 Leo satellites will be needed to complete the constellation, so the Sunday failure leaves a gap in the buildout that the company had mapped across multiple launch vehicles. Amazon Leo said, "There is risk with any launch, and that's especially true for inaugural missions like LV-01"
Amazon Leo added, "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."
Vulcan’s fifth flight
The flight was the fifth Vulcan mission and the first in nine months. It also was the first outright failure of a United Launch Alliance rocket since the company was formed in 2006.
Vulcan uses two methane-burning BE-4 engines on its first stage, and its hydrogen-fueled Centaur upper stage engines were scheduled for a 12-minute and 15-second burn. Blue Origin engineers had retrofitted the BE-4 engines used Sunday with a fix after a catastrophic on-pad explosion last May.
ULA said, "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."
The next step is the investigation ULA described, with the central question focused on what happened during the Centaur upper stage burn and what corrective action will be needed before Vulcan flies again.
