NASA moves SunRISE mission from ULA Vulcan to SpaceX Falcon Heavy
SpaceX · United Launch Alliance
NASA's SunRISE solar radio mission will now launch on a Falcon Heavy rideshare instead of a Vulcan Centaur.
what happened
NASA said its SunRISE (Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment) mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center, shifting from its previously assigned United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur, per a NASA Science blog post. The mission will fly as a rideshare sponsored by the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command; NASA said it will share updated launch timing later. SunRISE's six SmallSats, built at Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory, will operate as a single radio-interferometer array above geosynchronous orbit to track solar radio bursts.
why it matters
A NASA science payload moving off Vulcan and onto Falcon Heavy is a small but concrete data point on manifest pressure at ULA and SpaceX's growing share of government rideshare business; the Space Systems Command sponsorship also shows the military increasingly brokering launch slots for civil science payloads.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- SpaceX, United Launch Alliance
- Category
- science
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 5 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-07-13
- Published
- 2026-07-14 05:39 UTC