What is ULA?

United Launch Alliance, ULA, is a historic, storied, and America's longest-running space company with a great history of launching rockets . They are currently in the certification phase of their brand new rocket, called Vulcan. It is a direct competitor to SpaceX's Falcon Heavy.

What is certification?

Certification basically tells the US government that the rocket works. It requires 2 launches with an inert payload, basically a piece of concrete, into space. They had their first launch in January this year, it was perfect and had no issues.

ULA launched a fancy metal cube on this second launch with some science instruments, but nothing crazy.

So, what's the problem?

Today, ULA's launch had a bit of an anomaly. The GEM63XL solid rocket motor had a little issue. Note, the SRB (solid rocket booster) looks like this on the side:

And here's what it looked like today

Whoops!

Here's another close up of the nozzle breaking off

Go back to the first video, and you can see just how much the rocket tilts over because of the change in thrust!

Ok and?

Well, when an anomaly occurs, typically the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) assesses to see if it warrants something called an investigation. During an investigation, the rocket can NOT launch and the FAA can take a while to determine if the rocket is safe or not.

There are 3 parts to determining if an investigation is required:

1. Did it kill anybody?

2. Did it deviate from the flight path?

3. Were there any safety issues undisclosed to the FAA?

According to this flight, despite the launch anomaly, the rocket was still able to make it to a perfect, bullseye orbit and the FAA said this:

Turns out, ULA know what they are doing, and Tory Bruno, the CEO, posted this:

Neat! So... what about SpaceX?

SpaceX has a rocket called Starship that they are testing as well, but they are being a bit more ambitious and are trying to catch the first stage booster on some chopsticks. It looks pretty epic, and it's very very ambitious to say the least.

But, this 5th flight they are trying to launch is under investigation by the FAA because of some shenanigans that happened with the last flight as well as this catching maneuver. It's taking a while, and SpaceX fans are MAD.

And SpaceX hasn't had a great year either, they had a booster landing failure, requiring an FAA investigation (only 2 days though lol), they had an upper stage blow up (another investigation), and they had ANOTHER upper-stage failure (another investigation).

Remember, all of these things deviate from the flight path and so require an investigation. SpaceX fans don't like it at all.

So, when seeing this launch have an anomaly, they freaked out when they saw the FAA didn't care.

Xeets:

Rocket man confused

Peepeeriders in shambles:

So I think they'll now be grounded by the FAA.

Oh! Wait a minute, they're not SpaceX, they'll be fine 💀pic.twitter.com/2VqQ0efDQO

— Space Sudoer (@spacesudoer) October 4, 2024

ULA Vulcan Launch Anomaly - FAA ?
I assume the FAA will pursue ULA with as much vigour and delay as they do SpaceX?
This was REALLY dangerous, the whole rocket could have exploded shortly after launch !!!
Will ULA be as open as SpaceX ? I doubt it…

— Stephen Lawrance (@StephenLawnet) October 4, 2024

I’m aware of precedural reasons for this, but it’s dumb a F9 landing burn failure on a droneship (far after mission ascent) warrants an investigation but this does not. This is goofy. This is like what happened with Challenger but by luck the gases didn’t pierce the tank. https://t.co/HHEGTL1h1y

— Robotbeat🗽 ➐ (@Robotbeat) October 4, 2024

Yup. This is my opinion.

It’s actually *worse* if the regulation/statute/whatever is being applied neutrally. In that scenario the issue is that the rule makes zero sense.

This issue with far greater propensity to harm is univestigated.

— Ken Kirtland IV (@KenKirtland17) October 4, 2024

It is strange
The launch license Vulcan operates under requires a mishap investigation if a launch incident occurs
According to the FAA's definition, this includes the failure of a safety critical component; I would think that a SRB is exactly thathttps://t.co/0gT5JeyXHD pic.twitter.com/2xvUrT8mG9

— Space Enthusiast (@spce_enthusiast) October 4, 2024

The FAA has determined that no mishap investigation is required for the Vulcan launch anomaly.

Investigations are only for SpaceX. pic.twitter.com/Oot0hlSEfv

— Dima Zeniuk (@DimaZeniuk) October 5, 2024

Lots of cope in these replies, enjoy!!

Oh also enjoy ULA Vulcan waifu!