ULA's Vulcan rocket is set to return to flight on Friday the 13th

本文为原文前 6,000 字符的节选翻译，完整内容请查看原文。

United Launch Alliance announced Wednesday it plans to return its Vulcan rocket to service on November 13, nine months after a solid rocket booster anomaly threw the company’s 2026 launch schedule into oblivion. The return-to-flight mission will launch 40 satellites for the Amazon Leo broadband constellation, the first of 38 Vulcan flights Amazon has booked to deploy the bulk of its network.

联合发射联盟（ULA）周三宣布，计划于11月13日恢复其火神（Vulcan）火箭的飞行服务。此前，一次固体火箭助推器异常导致该公司2026年的发射计划陷入停滞，至今已过去九个月。此次复飞任务将为亚马逊的“柯伊伯计划”（Amazon Leo）宽带卫星群发射40颗卫星，这是亚马逊预订的38次火神火箭发射任务中的首次，旨在部署其大部分网络。

The mission will lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and ULA said the launch date is pending range approval. The launch is critical for ULA after its new flagship rocket suffered nozzle failures on its solid rocket boosters on two of its first four missions, most recently during a flight in February.

该任务将从佛罗里达州的卡纳维拉尔角太空军基地升空，ULA表示发射日期尚待靶场批准。对于ULA而言，此次发射至关重要，因为其新旗舰火箭在最初四次任务中有两次出现了固体火箭助推器喷管故障，最近一次发生在二月份的飞行中。

In both cases, the rocket overcame the nozzle failure and completed its mission, but officials at the US Space Force, ULA’s primary customer, lost confidence in Vulcan. Space Force officials will closely scrutinize Vulcan’s return-to-flight mission. The Pentagon has entrusted ULA’s Vulcan rocket for roughly half of its major launches through the early 2030s.

在这两次事故中，火箭虽克服了喷管故障并完成了任务，但ULA的主要客户美国太空军的官员对火神火箭失去了信心。太空军官员将密切审查火神火箭的复飞任务。五角大楼已将2030年代初之前约一半的主要发射任务委托给ULA的火神火箭。

In a statement, United Launch Alliance said engineers “made great strides” in understanding the booster anomaly that occurred in February. Engineers “have identified several potential contributors, which have been mitigated through design and process improvements to the nozzle,” ULA said.

在一份声明中，联合发射联盟表示，工程师在理解二月份发生的助推器异常方面“取得了巨大进展”。ULA称，工程师们“已经确定了几个潜在的影响因素，并通过对喷管的设计和工艺改进进行了缓解”。

The Space Force is counting on United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to deliver into orbit a backlog of the military’s communications, navigation, missile warning, and surveillance satellites. Amazon Leo, a potential competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink network, also has an inventory of broadband satellites in storage waiting for rides on the Vulcan rocket.

太空军指望由波音和洛克希德·马丁各持股50%的合资企业联合发射联盟，将积压的军事通信、导航、导弹预警和监视卫星送入轨道。作为SpaceX星链网络的潜在竞争对手，亚马逊的“柯伊伯计划”也有一批宽带卫星在库中等待搭乘火神火箭。

With ULA’s delays, the Space Force has moved six missions off the Vulcan rocket to expedite their launch on SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. ULA received six future missions originally assigned to SpaceX, the military’s other certified launch provider.

由于ULA的延误，太空军已将六项任务从火神火箭转移至SpaceX的猎鹰9号和猎鹰重型火箭上，以加快发射进度。作为补偿，ULA获得了原定由军方另一家认证发射供应商SpaceX执行的六项未来任务。

Brig. Gen. Eric Zarybnisky, the chief rocket buyer at Space Systems Command, said the military wants to see data from commercial flights on the Vulcan rocket before clearing ULA to resume national security launches. At least two Amazon Leo missions are on the Vulcan launch schedule before it flies another national security mission, perhaps early next year.

太空系统司令部首席火箭采购官埃里克·扎里布尼斯基（Eric Zarybnisky）准将表示，军方希望在批准ULA恢复国家安全发射任务之前，先看到火神火箭商业飞行的数据。在明年年初可能进行的下一次国家安全任务之前，火神火箭的发射计划中至少还有两次亚马逊的卫星发射任务。