ULA Wants to Make Its Rocket ‘Lethal’ to Defend U.S. Assets in Space

The 200-foot Vulcan Centaur rocket could do more than just launch satellites to orbit. As the rocket awaits certification to launch military payloads, United Launch Alliance (ULA) suggests that Vulcan can also be used to ward off space enemies and protect U.S. assets in orbit.

During the Spacepower Conference held earlier this month, ULA CEO Tory Bruno revealed that he had alternative plans for the heavy-lift launch vehicle, SpaceNews reported. Bruno’s suggestion includes utilizing the rocket’s upper stage as a “space interceptor” to thwart attacks against the U.S. Space Force’s assets in space. “Our vision is the ability to have a platform that is lightning fast, long range, and, if necessary, very lethal,” he said during the conference. “What I’ve been working on is essentially a rocket that operates in space.”

Well, that’s certainly an idea. The 202-foot-tall (61.6-meter) Vulcan Centaur is an expendable heavy-lift launch vehicle that was first conceived in 2006. The rocket borrows design elements from both ULA’s Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, and finally made its debut on January 8, launching Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander toward the Moon. The rocket’s inaugural flight was originally scheduled to take place in 2019, but Vulcan faced several challenges and hiccups that delayed its big day.

Vulcan Centaur is crucial to the commercial space industry as well as U.S. national security. With its Vulcan rocket, ULA is hoping to compete with industry favorite SpaceX. The U.S. military has grown more dependent on SpaceX to launch its payload to orbit, a market share that used to be dominated by ULA.

However, Vulcan is not yet ready to launch military payloads. The rocket carried out its second certification flight in October, but ULA’s marquee flight vehicle hit a snag. Following a nominal liftoff, the rocket experienced an issue about 35 seconds after launch, when a plume of material suddenly appeared to be coming off one of its two boosters.

The main purpose of the Cert-2 mission was for the U.S. Space Force to certify Vulcan for national security missions, with the rocket slated to carry two U.S. military payloads to orbit this year. The not-so-ideal flight has delayed the rocket’s certification process.

Bruno’s recent suggestion to turn the rocket into a space superhero may be an act of desperation as ULA continues to fall behind its main competitor, SpaceX. During the conference, the ULA CEO suggested that Vulcan’s upper stage could be upgraded to serve as a long-endurance vehicle that operates in space and respond rapidly to incoming threats.

“We know that the Chinese are going to come after us in space,” Bruno said, according to SpaceNews. “If we watch an attack developing where a Chinese asset is spending a few days or a week approaching something we care about, we have something we can move there in a few hours and interrupt that attack before it starts.”

Mentioning China’s increasing capabilities in space is one way to get folks behind your plan. Still, Bruno’s remarks reflect a larger concern shared by both national and commercial spaceflight players: that space is headed toward a militarized future where orbital warfare may be inevitable.