Vulcan SRB anomaly still under investigation
MILAN — The loss of a solid rocket booster nozzle on the second flight of the Vulcan Centaur had very little effect on the launch itself, but the impact of the incident on the vehicle’s certification by the Space Force remains uncertain.
On the Cert-2 launch Oct. 4, the nozzle of one of the two SRBs attached to the core stage of Vulcan came off about 35 seconds after liftoff. The incident, called an “observation” by United Launch Alliance, appeared to have a momentary effect on the vehicle, but it continued its ascent, with the timing of subsequent events falling behind the published timeline by up to 20 seconds.
In a talk at the International Astronautical Congress here Oct. 14, Tory Bruno, chief executive of ULA, said the incident only caused a small loss of performance. “The net effect of that was less than 2% of the total impulse of the booster,” he said, the motor continuing to fire but with reduced efficiency because of the lack of a nozzle.
The nozzle did not affect the motor itself or jeopardize the overall vehicle, he added. “We just did not have as much thrust coming out of there as we would like to have.”
