For United Launch Alliance, at least nine years of hard work will be put to the test when their new Vulcan rocket leaves the launch pad and heads towards space. The rocket was first announced in 2015, several months after the company forged a partnership with Blue Origin to develop engines to power a new booster platform. Since that time, the company has worked steadily on building their new rocket, Vulcan. At the time of this writing, ULA states that they are ready to launch Vulcan, and the latest forecasts from the 45th Weather Wing give an 85% chance of acceptable flight conditions. All of that work will be put to the ultimate test at 2:18 am tomorrow morning when Vulcan lifts off of SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Weather

The 45th Space Wing’s latest forecast was updated yesterday, January 7th:

ULA Readiness

While ULA declined to provide a specific launch timeline and the milestones contained within it to the media, they did announce on Friday that had passed its final review by senior managers, that the rocket was ready, and that they have a 60-minute hold planned at T-7 minutes, during which the launch team will assess their technical readiness. If the team agrees that Vulcan is still ready for flight from a technical standpoint, the countdown will resume, and assuming the range is clear and the weather is still go, Vulcan will launch.

Flight Profile

Live Coverage

ULA will offer a livestream of launch activities starting at 1:30am January 8th (tomorrow morning): ULA Vulcan CERT-1

You can also follow live updates on the company’s Twitter/X feed here.