United Launch Alliance says its long-delayed Vulcan rocket is finally set to fly again, no earlier than October 29.
The return-to-flight mission will carry a batch of Amazon's Leo broadband satellites. A second Vulcan flight, also for the Amazon Leo constellation, is already booked for later this year. Both missions depend on Vulcan's solid rocket boosters performing cleanly. If they do, ULA believes it can significantly ramp up Vulcan's launch cadence in 2027.
That matters because Amazon's satellite-broadband buildout needs more than one rocket family to get hardware into orbit, and Vulcan is among the few credible alternatives to SpaceX's Falcon 9. A steady cadence next year would also reassure the Pentagon, which has committed national-security payloads to Vulcan despite its thin flight record so far.
Two launches before year's end is a modest bar to clear. A genuine cadence breakthrough is still a 2027 promise, not a 2026 fact.