The United Launch Alliance (ULA) has launched its Vulcan Centaur rocket for the second time. The successful, if dramatic, mission saw Vulcan carry an inert payload to orbit alongside some experiments and demonstrations and should complete its certification process with the U.S. Space Force (USSF).
SpaceX has delayed missions this week following an off-nominal deorbit burn of a Falcon 9 second stage following the Crew-9 mission. The stage landed in the South Pacific Ocean but outside of the defined reentry corridor. While the team investigates, the company has rescheduled the planned launch of its OneWeb mission out of Vandenberg to next week. Two Starlink missions, which may have flown towards the end of this week, have since been removed from the schedule while Falcon 9 awaits a return to flight. As an exception, the FAA authorized one Falcon 9 flight carrying the Hera mission for the European Space Agency (ESA). This featured booster B1061 on its 23rd and final flight.