United Launch Alliance launched its first mission of 2026 with the USSF-87 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Vulcan Centaur V-005, with four solid rocket boosters in the VC4S configuration, launched on Thursday, Feb. 12, at 4:22 AM EST (09:22 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 41.
One SRB appeared to have another burn-through issue at the throat of its nozzle, although it did not prevent the mission to continuing to a nominal deployment. Northrop Grumman’s statement to NSF per the observation: “During today’s successful launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket and its USSF-87 mission, the team observed an anomaly on one of Northrop Grumman’s GEM 63XL solid rocket boosters. We continue to work with our ULA partners to collect data and understand this event.”