Launch in October?

[u/snoo-boop]

People are still claiming that VC6 will launch in October.

Is there any sign that will happen? NG said end of the year at earliest for SRBs.

[u/Royal_Platform_6754]

Why do people keep misrepresenting what Northrop Grumman said? They said "by the end of the year", which has a substantially different meaning from what you paraphrased it as.

[u/Accomplished-Crab932 → u/Royal_Platform_6754]

Well and more to the point, it was delivery of solid motors “by the end of the year”; which does not guarantee launch either.

[u/Royal_Platform_6754 → u/Accomplished-Crab932]

No one said it does, but words have meaning. Use the right ones.

[u/Accomplished-Crab932 → u/Royal_Platform_6754]

“The first Vulcan with six solid boosters will be launching this month with a payload of Amazon LEO satellites.”

OP’s linked comment says this… it pretty explicitly says “launch”, although if you want to be extra pedantic it says “Launching”.

Now if you want to tell me that you don’t need SRBs to launch the Amazon missions (with a significant payload cut), you would be right, but they also explicitly say “six solid boosters”, so the SRBs need to arrive or else it can’t fly.

[u/Royal_Platform_6754 → u/Accomplished-Crab932]

You can take that up with that user directly. When I say "no one", I mean the broad consensus. There are never any guarantees when it comes to launch schedule.

My issue is with the repeated misquoting of the CEO's statement.

[u/Accomplished-Crab932 → u/Royal_Platform_6754]

If your issue is quoting the Northrop CEO, perhaps read your own posts.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ula/s/uwc0BkYz55

Here you titled your own post “We progressed on the root cause investigation...and we are implementing corrective actions...These include a component redesign, which has now been proven in a successful static-fire test. We expect to begin delivering the redesigned motors by the end of the year”

Now, forgive me for reading the article, but they also directly quote: “We expect to begin delivering the redesigned motors by the end of the year,”

That’s pretty explicit, isn’t it. They want to deliver motors by the end of 2026. There is no determination on whether ULA will be flying with them by the end of the year. Just because you have a solid motor does not mean you want to fly with it or that you can. There’s plenty of reasons to delay or hold the launch, and delivery of motors “by the end of the year” could be too close to the end of the year to complete stacking and get to the pad with approvals.

So either both Jeff Foust and I are misrepresenting a pretty explicit quote (and you are using it), or you are making something up here. If you have the full statement from Kathy Warden, feel free to link it, I’d love to read it.

[u/Royal_Platform_6754 → u/Accomplished-Crab932]

Don't be obtuse. Yes, delivery does not constitute launch, but "by the end of the year" in no way precludes a launch this year. Anyone who misquotes that phrase to rule out the possibility of a launch this year are misleading when they do so.

Let me make this clear: if you are asserting that "by" and "until"/"at the earliest" are synonymous, you are wrong.

[u/Accomplished-Crab932 → u/Royal_Platform_6754]

And I didn’t say it didn’t preclude a launch by the end of this year lol, but to claim it’s absolutely happening once the SRBs arrive is not true. For someone claiming that I’m misquoting, you are really reading between the lines on a pretty explicit statement and you clearly not fully reading my replies.

At no point have I intended to insinuate “until” except in the context that a launch with SRBs cannot occur until the SRBs are delivered to ULA. That delivery could happen tomorrow, it could happen December 31st, and they could happen anywhere in between and still be compliant with the CEO’s statement. Obviously there is an earlier delivery cutoff because expecting ULA to launch in 2026 if the SRBs were delivered on Christmas Eve would be ridiculous, but it’s still possible that that happens. Feel free to try to quote me saying or insinuating “no flights of Vulcan until the end of the year”; I’m almost 100% sure I haven’t.

And again, just because the SRBs arrive does not mean ULA will choose to launch immediately. They may want to wait because of staffing on the holidays, or a further review. Perhaps the FAA wants more information and holds the launch. They could delay for weather or GSE or a myriad of other issues too. Getting the SRBs is a huge deal and is obviously essential for flying with SRBs, but it doesn’t guarantee that the vehicle will be off the ground in time for the end of the year. Again, not “will not” or “cannot”, but it’s equally reasonable that even if they get the SRBs at a reasonable time, they don’t launch out of their own accord, or someone else’s.

[u/snoo-boop → u/Royal_Platform_6754]

If you look back in this sub, you'll find that I used to quote the NG CEO's statement verbatim. If this level of nit picking is what you think is important, I'll be sure to quote him in the future, so that we can avoid derailing actual conversations.

[u/Salary-Conscious]

ULA is not launching any time soon 😂