Cape Canaveral:Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA, ULA rocket launch schedule from Florida Roughly 40 minutes after liftoff, ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno said the Vulcan trajectory remained nominal, and the Centaur V upper stage was inserted into orbit as intended. However, he said crews are looking into "an observation" involving one of the two solid rocket boosters — a bright shower of sparks was seen flying from near the Vulcan's fiery plume about 38 seconds after liftoff. "We will be off looking into that after the mission is complete. Other than that, the flight was nominal," Bruno said during the ULA launch webcast. Messages seeking additional information on the solid rocket booster issue were left with a ULA spokesperson Friday morning. In a press release issued nearly two hours after liftoff, Bruno said, "we are pleased with the rocket’s performance and had a bullseye insertion." The press release deemed Cert-2 a successful launch. "ULA continues to work closely with the U.S. Space Force as they take the next few weeks to review the data and compare it to ULA’s first certification mission to ensure that the vehicle performed as expected and there are no additional items that need review," the press release said. Cert-2 demonstrated "Vulcan's high-energy rocket architecture by achieving an Earth-escape trajectory and placing the Centaur V with an inert, non-deployable payload into deep space where it will orbit the sun for the rest of time," the company described. Crews initially scheduled liftoff for 6 a.m., pushed the target time back to 6:30, and rescheduled the launch within a few minutes of Cape Canaveral's 7:16 a.m. sunrise. "It was a beautiful liftoff this morning. I think we're all really excited to see that. It's such a significant launch, in terms of our certification and where we're going with Vulcan. So it was just a tremendous accomplishment from this team," Megan LePien, ULA's Space Force program manager, said during the launch webcast. Next, Bruno said ULA has a pair of national security missions "in the pipeline," after which the company will roll into next year. During a Wednesday media roundtable, he said ULA will launch as many as 20 missions next year, split roughly between Vulcan and Atlas V rockets. ULA has sold more than 70 Vulcan launches to date, including 38 Amazon Project Kuiper missions. For the latest news and launch schedule from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.