United Launch Alliance (ULA) is gearing up for a long-awaited comeback, returning to secretive payload lifts for the National Security Space Launch program with its heavy-lift Vulcan Centaur rocket.

In the near term, ULA will switch back to launching its soon-to-retire Atlas V rocket, the Vulcan rocket's predecessor. The company has 13 more Atlas Vs in its inventory, most of them sold to Amazon and Boeing to launch Kuiper Internet satellites and Starliner crew missions to the International Space Station.