Company United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced that it plans to conduct the second test flight of its new Vulcan rocket on September 16. It was also known that the Vulcan launch in September (Cert-2 mission) will carry a mock-up payload instead of the Dream Chaser cargo ship as previously planned.

The decision was made because there was a “significant risk” that the ship would not be ready for launch on schedule. ULA does not want to delay the launch in order to certify the new rocket as soon as possible, because the U.S. Space Force has already contracted the Vulcan rocket to launch most of the military’s space missions over the next few years. Pentagon officials are eagerly awaiting regular flights of the Vulcan.

The third Vulcan launch is scheduled for late 2024. The rocket will send an experimental demonstration satellite into orbit to test next-generation satellite navigation technologies, USSF-106, for the benefit of the United States Air Force.