As SpaceX and NASA gear up for the Crew-12 launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida early on Friday morning, its colleagues at United Launch Alliance (ULA) are just hours away from sending the Vulcan Centaur rocket skyward on only its fourth flight.
A two-hour launch window opens at 3:30 a.m. ET (12:30 a.m. PT) on Thursday, February 12, at Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex-41.
The mission, USSF-87, is for the U.S. Space Force and will deliver spacecraft directly into geosynchronous orbit around 22,000 miles above Earth. While the finer details of the mission are classified, we do know that the two satellites will monitor and track objects in Earth orbit.
Thursday’s mission will set new performance and endurance records for ULA’s relatively new Vulcan rocket, with the USSF-87 being the heaviest payload yet carried by the vehicle, according to the spaceflight company. The Vulcan booster and the upper-stage Centaur will also be embarking on the rocket’s longest mission to date, lasting nearly 10 hours from liftoff to completion.
“Countdown operations are continuing smoothly today at Space Launch Complex-41 to ready the Vulcan rocket for liftoff,” ULA said in an update on its website. “System final preps are underway, valve functional tests are complete and Centaur V helium bottles have pressurized. The flame bucket cover will soon be removed by launch pad technicians and chilldown of the environmental control system is about to begin.”
The Vulcan Centaur will fly with four solid rocket boosters at full power, which should make for a spectacular sight as it climbs high over the East Coast. The rocket, which took its maiden flight in January 2024, will be launching for the first time since August last year.
You can watch the launch live via the video player embedded at the top of this page. The broadcast will begin at 3:10 a.m. ET, which is about 20 minutes before liftoff.
While it looks likely that the rocket will launch tonight, be sure to check ULA’s X account in case any last-minutes technical issues occur that force the team to scrub the launch.