Replace June 16, 1 p.m. EDT: ULA scrubbed the mission resulting from a temperature problem related to the RD-180 engine on the booster.
United Launch Alliance and its buyer, Amazon, should wait longer for the second launch of Amazon’s Challenge Kuiper satellites following a scrub Monday afternoon.
In the course of the countdown, ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno famous in a submit on BlueSky that groups have been “working a temperature measurement (that was) hotter than earlier household,” which means in comparison with different Atlas 5 launches.
ULA known as the scrub shortly earlier than 1 p.m. EDT, roughly half an hour earlier than the deliberate liftoff time on Monday.
“United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 551 carrying Amazon’s second Challenge Kuiper mission, Kuiper 2, is delayed resulting from an engineering statement of an elevated purge temperature throughout the booster engine,” the corporate wrote in a press release. “The crew will consider the {hardware}, and we are going to launch a brand new launch date when accessible.”
Fueling for the 205-foot-tall (62.5 m) rocket had concluded earlier than the scrub name. Bruno stated in one other submit to BlueSky that the difficulty with the gaseous nitrogen couldn’t be fastened inside their accessible launch window.
“We’ll kind it out and be again,” Bruno stated. It’s unclear if ULA will have the ability to make the fixes on the pad or if groups might want to return the rocket to the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) a few third of a mile from the pad to do the mandatory work.
On Sunday, the forty fifth Climate Squadron forecast a 75 p.c probability for favorable climate circumstances at launch time, itemizing issues just for cumulus clouds and low to reasonable photo voltaic exercise.
“Floor excessive strain to the east will keep southeasterly circulate throughout the Spaceport throughout the main and back-up launch alternatives,” launch climate officers wrote. “On this regime, showers and thunderstorms can start to develop throughout the area within the early afternoon. Nevertheless, excessive strain aloft and dry air close to the area might assist restrict bathe and thunderstorm growth early within the week.”
A launch readiness overview held on Friday, June 13, and overseen by ULA Launch Director James Whelan, culminated in a ‘go’ for the launch marketing campaign to proceed. Climate circumstances improved barely since Friday’s outlook as properly.
ULA rolled its Atlas 5 rocket out from the VIF on a journey of a 3rd of a mile to the launch pad on Saturday. Launch groups spent a part of the day loading RP-1, a rocket-grade kerosene onto the rocket in preparation for launch day fueling.
The rocket carries the ULA designation of AV-105 and it will likely be the 103rd launch of an Atlas 5 rocket. ULA refers back to the mission as Atlas 5 Kuiper 2 or just Kuiper 2.
This launch shall be adopted later this summer time by a pair of nationwide safety missions utilizing the corporate’s Vulcan rocket after which ULA plans to launch its first batch of Kuiper satellites on a Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral. Vulcan can ship 45 Kuiper satellites into LEO versus the 27 that an Atlas 5 rocket can assist.
Following Monday’s deliberate launch, ULA could have six extra Atlas 5 rockets which have been bought by Amazon to fly satellites for its constellation. The tech large procured 9 in complete, however a type of was used on a devoted mission solely for the demonstration Kuiper satellites, dubbed Protoflight.
Making a cadence
Amazon is up in opposition to a regulatory clock to get its satellites on orbit and in a functioning constellation. It has a requirement from its settlement with the Federal Communications Fee (FCC) to get at the least half of its deliberate first-generation constellation of greater than 3,200 satellites in operation by the tip of July 2026.
Along with the remaining Atlas 5 rockets at its disposal, Amazon additionally bought 38 Vulcan rockets, 18 Ariane 6 rockets, 12 New Glenn rockets (with the choice so as to add one other 15) and three Falcon 9 rockets from ULA, Arianespace, Blue Origin and SpaceX respectively.
When it introduced the acquisition of the Falcon 9 flights from SpaceX, Amazon stated in December 2023 that it might start launching on this rocket in mid-2025. Since then, Amazon has not commented on whether or not or not it’s nonetheless on tempo with satellite tv for pc manufacturing or supply to satisfy that timeline.
Each Blue Origin and Arianespace haven’t mentioned their launch manifests extensively in a public setting, however each firms are aiming for his or her subsequent launches within the August timeframe and neither shall be with Challenge Kuiper satellites on board. It stays unclear when the primary Kuiper launch will happen with these rockets.
Check out this @ULAlaunch clip of the primary Kuiper satellites being launched into low Earth orbit roughly 280 miles above the planet. Deployment takes place over a 15-minute interval after launch, with satellites launched three at a time from the dispenser system. pic.twitter.com/bZ1zUy3IWs
— Challenge Kuiper (@ProjectKuiper) Could 2, 2025
It created a brand new web page on its web site on June 10, 2025, that it stated incorporates “updates on current and upcoming Challenge Kuiper missions.” As of June 15, the web page didn’t embody references to another launches past what it designated as KA-02 and the beforehand launched KA-01, which lifted off on April 28.
“ULA will deploy the satellites at an altitude of 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth, at which level the Challenge Kuiper crew will take over command of the mission from our 24/7 mission operations middle in Redmond, Washington, verify satellite tv for pc well being, and in the end increase the satellites to their assigned orbit of 392 miles (630 km) above Earth,” Amazon wrote concerning the upcoming launch.
This second flight for Amazon will carry its constellation as much as 54 satellites in complete out of the greater than 1,600 it wants in just a bit greater than a yr’s time. In a submit on LinkedIn, Rajeev Badyal, the vice chairman of Know-how at Challenge Kuiper stated April’s launch made him optimistic concerning the path of the corporate.
“The success of our first full-scale Kuiper mission in April meant we may transfer instantly to our subsequent launch,” Badyal wrote. “All 27 satellites for our KA-02 mission have been totally built-in inside 17 days of that first launch, and ULA plans to ship them into orbit subsequent Monday. Because of the whole crew for the short turnaround. Go Kuiper. Go Atlas. Go KA-02!”
A key take a look at for Amazon shall be how shortly it may possibly get again to the pad with its satellites, whichever rocket shall be able to fly them.
