Space Launch Complex 41 – Spaceflight Now

ULA test-fires first Vulcan rocket at Cape Canaveral

June 7, 2023 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance’s first Vulcan Centaur rocket completed a critical test-firing of its Blue Origin-built BE-4 main engines Wednesday night, clearing one of two remaining technical hurdles before the launcher is cleared for its inaugural flight later this year.

ULA delays Vulcan test-firing to troubleshoot engine ignition system

May 26, 2023 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance called off a test-firing of the company’s first flight-rated Vulcan Centaur rocket at Cape Canaveral Thursday to troubleshoot a problem with the booster’s engine ignition system.

First Vulcan rocket rolls back to hangar for ‘adjustments’ prior to test-firing

May 16, 2023 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance’s first Vulcan rocket was filled with methane and liquid oxygen propellants at Cape Canaveral last week for a tanking test, but managers decided to move the rocket back inside a hangar for a few adjustments before proceeding with an engine test-firing.

ULA selects launch pads for new Vulcan rocket

October 12, 2015 Stephen Clark

United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan rocket will lift off from the company’s existing Atlas 5 launch facilities in Florida and California, according to the company’s Vulcan program manager.

Build-up of crew access tower begins at Atlas 5 pad

September 15, 2015 Stephen Clark

A new fixture on the Cape Canaveral skyline began rising Tuesday with the placement of the first of seven segments for a 200-foot-tall crew access tower at the Atlas 5 rocket’s seaside launch pad for astronauts boarding Boeing’s new commercial CST-100 Starliner spaceship.

Photos: Atlas 5/MMS launch gallery

March 17, 2015 Justin Ray

A photo gallery shows Thursday night’s successful Atlas 5 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.

More views of Thursday night’s Atlas 5 launch

March 15, 2015 Stephen Clark

Spaceflight Now’s readers sent in photos from Thursday night’s launch of four NASA satellites aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, marking a fiery start to a mission probing the fundamental workings of the magnetic bubble shielding Earth from cosmic radiation.

Atlas 5 launch pad being prepared for astronaut crews

January 28, 2015 Stephen Clark

Work on Boeing’s CST-100 commercial crew capsule will ramp up at the program’s new home base in Florida this year, with construction of a crew access tower at the Atlas 5 rocket’s launch pad underway and assembly of a spacecraft test article due to begin in a converted space shuttle hangar.

Readers share their views of Tuesday’s Atlas 5 launch

January 21, 2015 Stephen Clark

A powerful Atlas 5 rocket fitted with a kerosene-burning main engine and five solid-fueled boosters lit up Florida’s Space Coast with Tuesday night’s blastoff carrying a U.S. Navy communications satellite into orbit. We present a sample of launch photos submitted by Spaceflight Now’s readers.

Live coverage: Atlas 5 blasts off with Navy satellite

January 19, 2015 Justin Ray

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket fitted with five powerful solid-fueled boosters has lifted off from a seaside launch complex at Cape Canaveral with the U.S. Navy’s third Mobile User Objective System communications satellite.