Newshot ULA's First Complete Mission Failure in 20 Years: Vulcan Rocket Anomaly 10 Minutes After Liftoff, 40 亚马逊 Satellites Lost
IT之家 November 16 news: United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan launch vehicle lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the local date of November 15, carrying out the first launch mission for the 亚马逊 low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation Amazon Leo.
However, about 10 minutes after liftoff, the rocket experienced an anomaly and failed to deliver the 40 satellites it carried into their intended orbit. This is ULA's first complete mission failure since its founding in 2006, ending the company's nearly 20-year perfect record.
At around early morning Beijing time on November 16, the Vulcan rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's SLC-41, carrying out a mission designated LV-01. United Launch Alliance subsequently issued a statement saying that, according to data received by the launch director, the rocket experienced an anomaly about 10 minutes into flight and failed to deliver the 亚马逊 satellites into orbit.
ULA said that after the anomaly occurred, the company temporarily did not have enough data to determine the specific cause, and would work with the customer and other relevant agencies to conduct an investigation, determine the root cause and develop corrective measures, and then resume launches. Reuters reported that the accident resulted in the loss of the rocket and the 40 satellites it carried, and the specific cause of the failure remains unclear.
IT之家 notes that this launch had already been postponed twice. On November 13, ULA canceled the launch because a power interruption at an external gaseous nitrogen plant stopped a high-pressure pump from working; on November 14, a network communication problem between ground equipment and the rocket required reconfiguration, ultimately exceeding the originally scheduled 29-minute launch window. ULA said at the time that the rocket and satellites were in normal condition.
This mission was also the Vulcan rocket's first flight after about 9 months. Previously, this rocket type had experienced solid booster nozzle anomalies during flights in 2024 and 2025, and the related issues led the U.S. government to suspend use of the Vulcan rocket for national security launch missions.
According to a Spaceflight Now report, ULA had previously developed improvement measures for the booster nozzle issue, and this launch also adopted the relevant corrective plans.
For 亚马逊, LV-01 is the first of 38 Vulcan rocket launch missions it purchased from ULA. According to a 亚马逊 announcement released on November 9, this mission was originally planned to send 40 Amazon Leo broadband satellites into low Earth orbit in a single launch, the largest number of satellites launched in a single mission for the project to date.
亚马逊 previously said that the Vulcan rocket would deploy more than 1,500 first-generation Leo satellites for it across 38 missions, undertaking a considerable portion of the launch work for the entire constellation. 亚马逊 also disclosed that the second Vulcan launch mission, LV-02, was already being prepared in another assembly building and was originally planned to launch within weeks after LV-01 was successfully completed.
According to the deployment plan previously announced by 亚马逊, in addition to ULA, Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, the Ariane 6 rocket and SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket will also carry out Amazon Leo satellite launch missions.
However, Blue Origin's launch plan has also been affected by an accident. On the local date of May 28, 2026, the New Glenn rocket experienced a serious anomaly during a hot-fire test at Launch Complex LC-36 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp issued a statement on June 30 saying that the accident damaged the lightning tower, the transport erector and hydraulic cylinders, and the company was still investigating the cause.
Blue Origin subsequently disclosed further in August that the source of the accident was located in the main oxygen valve of one BE-4 engine on the New Glenn first stage. Because both New Glenn and Vulcan use BE-4 engines, this issue is also directly related to ULA's Vulcan rocket.
Ars Technica reported that Blue Origin confirmed the location of the failure through recovered hardware and inspections. ULA CEO Mark Peller previously said in an interview with Aviation Week & Space Technology that Blue Origin had made design improvements to the BE-4 engine main oxygen valve and had installed retrofit kits on the engines used in this LV-01 mission.
Related Articles
- 亚马逊 Leo has manufactured more than 1,000 satellites, with daily production capacity of at least 3–4 satellites
- Galactic Energy Aerospace: will launch the "Ceres-1 Sea Launch (Y8)" commercial launch vehicle at an opportune time in the near future
- Galactic Energy's "Pallas-1" medium-to-large reusable liquid launch vehicle successfully completed its maiden flight
- 亚马逊 officially submitted a device direct-connect application for Leo, planning to build a large network of more than 5,000 satellites
- Galactic Energy's "Pallas-1" medium-to-large reusable liquid launch vehicle is planned to make its maiden flight in mid-to-late August
- Galactic Energy's Pallas series rocket launch pad (Phase I) has officially been completed, with the goal of a maiden flight this year