Q&A with Tory Bruno, ULA’s chief executive

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) and the Space Operations Command (SpOC) shifted the GPS 3 Space Vehicle 07 spacecraft to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket due to delays in Vulcan’s certification.

United Launch Alliance could load cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen propellants into a Vulcan rocket test article at Cape Canaveral for the first time in the coming weeks, timing key tests for the next-generation rocket in between flights of Atlas 5 rockets that will share the same launch complex for the next few years.

The mobile service tower retracts from the Atlas 5 rocket, revealing the 191-foot-tall vehicle for liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, carrying the classified NROL-79 national security payload for the U.S. government.