ULA’s Vulcan cleared for national-security launches

United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan heavy-lift rocket has a green light to send military payloads into space, poising the company to compete against SpaceX for Pentagon contracts. “Vulcan certification adds launch capacity, resiliency, and flexibility needed by our nation’s most critical space-based systems,” Brig. Gen. Panzenhagen, the program executive officer for Assured Access to Space, said in the announcement today. ULA now joins SpaceX as a cleared provider f