Tantalum carbide has shown refractory characteristics, which nominates it as a prospective candidate for ultrahigh temperature applications. Vacuum plasma spraying is being used for the fabrication of tantalum carbide near net shape structures and coatings. Decomposition of tantalum carbide into sub-stoichiometric phases originates a potential problem during processing. Characterization of vacuum plasma sprayed tantalum carbide will be performed in order to correlate the microstructure, phases and properties to the vacuum plasma spraying processing environment.