ULA’s Vulcan set to return to flight with first Amazon Leo payload

What happened

United Launch Alliance’s current flagship launch vehicle, Vulcan, is scheduled to return to flight after being grounded since February due to recurring nozzle issues with the GEM-63XL solid rocket boosters.

A Vulcan VC6L, the most powerful configuration of the Vulcan rocket with six solid rocket boosters, an extended payload fairing, and a low-Earth orbit-optimized Centaur V upper stage, is scheduled to fly the Amazon Leo LV-01 mission. The launch window lasts half an hour and closes at 1:24 PM EST (18:24 UTC).

ULA’s Vulcan set to return to flight with first Amazon Leo payload by Justin Davenport November 12, 2026 written by Justin Davenport November 12, 2026 1 United Launch Alliance’s current flagship launch vehicle, Vulcan, is scheduled to return to flight after being grounded since February due to recurring nozzle issues with the GEM-63XL solid rocket boosters. This will be the most satellites carried on any Amazon Leo mission to date and will be the first of up to 38 Vulcan launches booked by Amazon with ULA for its broadband constellation, a competitor to Starlink.

Mission LV-01 will deploy its satellites to a 450 km circular parking orbit inclined 51.9 degrees to the equator, and will use 21 separate deployment events. Once the LV-01 satellites are deployed, the Amazon Leo constellation (a group of satellites working together) will have 432 satellites in orbit.

Amazon Leo needs 578 satellites deployed to a circular orbit at an altitude of 630 km to start initial regional service, and the first-generation network is scheduled to use up to 3,236 satellites. The first nozzle issue occurred in October 2024 during the rocket’s second flight, before a similar issue occurred on the USSF-87 mission in February of this year.