It’s been nearly nine months since United Launch Alliance managed a successful debut of its new Vulcan Centaur rocket, but launch No. 2 could happen as early as Friday.

The ULA Certification-2 mission is aiming for liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 during a three-hour window that runs from 6-9 a.m.

The rocket rolled out from the company’s vertical integration facility (VIF) to the pad on Monday. ULA plans to perform a wet dress rehearsal this week filling and draining the rocket with a million pounds of cryogenic propellants and running through a complete countdown.

This week’s Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) will see the #Cert2 #VulcanRocket loaded with a million pounds of cryogenic propellants at Space Launch Complex-41 and put through a complete countdown procedure as part of certification. https://t.co/eWLyIiIUE6 pic.twitter.com/vt7suqfO4g

— ULA (@ulalaunch) September 30, 2024

The first launch of the replacement for ULA’s Atlas and Delta family of rockets occurred back on Jan. 8 on the first of two certification missions needed by the U.S. Space Force before ULA can begin launching its backed-up slate of national security missions.

That first flight took up Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lunar lander to space. While the moon lander faced issues after deployment and was not able to make a landing, the rocket performed extremely well, said ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno.

A second launch was supposed to have flown the new Sierra Space Dream Chaser spacecraft on its debut cargo supply mission to the International Space Station, but delays to that spacecraft that is still readying for launch at Kennedy Space Center forced ULA to opt for a customer-free launch for this mission.

“I would have preferred to have taken the Dream Chaser up, but our upper stage technology payloads will help accelerate Centaur V’s evolution. Every cloud…,” Bruno posted on X.

ULA needs two flights under its belt for Vulcan before it can begin tackling the $3.1 billion worth of launches it had been awarded under National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contracts.

Bruno this summer said it was on target to launch the first two of those before the end of the year.

ULA was awarded 26 NSSL missions that would need to be launched by 2027. The first two missions were originally supposed to fly in 2022. Amid delays to Vulcan, at least one mission, USSF-51 for the Space Force, had to be moved to its limited remaining supply of Atlas V rockets. That one flew back in July leaving only 15 more Atlas V rockets left for ULA. The final Delta IV Heavy rocket flew earlier this year.

For the Cert-2 mission, the 109-foot-tall Vulcan will fly with two of a possible six solid rocket boosters so that it achieves more than 1.8 million pounds of thrust on liftoff. With all six, it has the capacity to generate 3.6 million pounds of thrust on liftoff. That thrust is more powerful than either Atlas V or Delta IV Heavy, and a power that meets the requirements to hit all the potential orbits needed for Department of Defense missions.

With no normal customer payload, the mission is instead flying with inert, nondeployable payloads atop the Centaur upper stage that will act as a mass simulator housed in the nearly 18-foot diameter fairing.

This flight will send the placeholder payload to deep space for a permanent orbit of the sun. ULA will be performing some more complex rocket experiments during the launch to help feed data for potential future mission needs, but details on that have not been revealed.

“Highly proprietary, secret sauce. It’s going to be awhile before we share more,” Bruno posted on X.

Its completion will open the door for Vulcan’s future launches, and the next two boosters are already on site at Cape Canaveral with two more off the assembly line at ULA’s rocket factory in Decatur, Alabama. An additional 24 Vulcan rockets are already in the works at various points of construction at the factory.

“After the key objectives necessary for certification are completed, the mission will evaluate additional changes to the design of the upper stage and how it is operated over long coast periods to further increase its endurance,” said Mark Peller, ULA’s senior vice president for Vulcan Development and Advanced Programs, in a press release.

The Cert-1 mission came nearly three years later than planned because of delays to the Astrobotic payload’s readiness, but also the rocket itself including the delivery of the first Blue Origin BE-4 engines, two of which are needed to power the main Vulcan stage.

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The ramp-up of BE-4 engines since, though, has ULA ready for all three of its planned Vulcan launches before the end of the year. After delivering those six engines earlier this summer, Blue Origin switched to focus on its own heavy-lift rocket New Glenn, that takes seven of its BE-4 engines, and is readying for its debut launch from the Space Coast as early as November.

But ULA and Blue Origin have indicated that there won’t be a delay into 2025 to get ULA its next two BE-4 engines needed for what would be the third of its NSSL flights, targeting no earlier than March. It also has to find a new date to fly Dream Chaser.

The Cert-2 mission would be ULA’s fifth flight of the year, all from Cape Canaveral. Bruno expects to hit eight missions for the year, including the first two of the remaining 25 DOD missions under contract all set to fly on Vulcan.

Vulcan also has 38 launches lined up to support Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet satellite constellation by mid-2026 as well, with eight going up on some of the remaining Atlas V rockets.

Amazon still needs to complete and deliver hundreds of the final versions of the satellites before those launches can take place. Amazon expects to complete a new integration facility at KSC by the end of the year that will speed up the process, and the rate of launch on both Atlas V and Vulcan rockets is expected to pick up in 2025.

ULA is building out a second VIF to be named VIF-C (as in commercial) to support those while the original VIF is now referred to as VIF-G as in government. It is also reconstructing its California launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base to support Vulcan launches. That pad is expected to be ready in the second quarter of 2025, Bruno said.

Space Coast launch capacity alone, though, should allow ULA to reach 25 launches per year when both VIFs are operational. The most launches ULA has ever had in one year was 16 back in 2009.