Overview
- A Vulcan rocket launched from Cape Canaveral at 12:40 p.m. EST on Sunday, November 15, 2026 suffered an anomaly about ten minutes into flight during the Centaur upper‑stage burn and failed to deliver its payload.
- The mishap destroyed 40 Amazon Leo internet satellites that were aboard the Centaur, marking ULA’s first total mission failure since the company formed in 2006.
- United Launch Alliance said it is reviewing telemetry and will work with Amazon and other agencies while NASA offered technical assistance to find the cause and set corrective actions.
- The flight follows months of hardware work: Northrop Grumman made fixes to strap‑on solid rocket booster nozzles and Blue Origin installed a retrofit on the BE‑4 first‑stage engines, but ULA reports the problem occurred during the hydrogen‑fueled Centaur upper‑stage firing after stage separation.
- The failure raises near‑term risks to Amazon’s launch schedule and to Vulcan’s commercial and national‑security certifications, and it will likely delay other customers while investigators determine root causes and necessary fixes.