Horne said the Space Force is still analyzing data from the October 4 launch, but so far, officials expect to approve certification for the Vulcan rocket. An agreement between the Space Force and ULA requires two successful flights of the Vulcan rocket before the military will entrust it with a national security mission.
“For the purposes of the certification plan, which requires that the certification flight deliver the satellite or payload—in this case, the mass simulator—to its specified orbit successfully… that’s what happened,” Horne said. “So this was a successful completion of that mission.”
He added that early assessments by the Space Force show that, had the same booster
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