Former ULA CEO Tory Bruno now working for Blue Origin
In a tweet on X, Blue Origin today announced that former ULA CEO Tory Bruno is now working for them, acting as president for its “newly formed National Security Group.”
Blue Origin’s CEO, David Limp, quickly chimed in with his own tweet, endorsing the hire.
My guess is that Limp felt Blue Origin needed someone with experience dealing with the military, and Bruno brings that capability, having managed ULA’s military launch contracts for years. It also means Blue Origin is very serious about grabbing a larger market share of those launches once its New Glenn rocket begins launching regularly.
I also wonder if Bruno grew tired of the culture at ULA, which has appeared resistant to building reusable rockets. Bruno sold Vulcan initially with the idea of quickly upgrading it to recover its engines for reuse, but by all signs the company has been very unenthusiastic about the idea. (The idea itself might not be viable, but overall ULA has shown no interest in developing a reusable rocket of any sort.) Bruno might have decided he’d rather work with a company enthused by reusability, especially as this is the future. Once ULA completes its large Amazon Leo launch contract it faces a bleak future, with many newer cheaper reusable rockets coming on line.
It could also be that Bruno was made an offer he couldn’t refuse. Money is always a powerful incentive.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
In a tweet on X, Blue Origin today announced that former ULA CEO Tory Bruno is now working for them, acting as president for its “newly formed National Security Group.”
Blue Origin’s CEO, David Limp, quickly chimed in with his own tweet, endorsing the hire.
My guess is that Limp felt Blue Origin needed someone with experience dealing with the military, and Bruno brings that capability, having managed ULA’s military launch contracts for years. It also means Blue Origin is very serious about grabbing a larger market share of those launches once its New Glenn rocket begins launching regularly.
I also wonder if Bruno grew tired of the culture at ULA, which has appeared resistant to building reusable rockets. Bruno sold Vulcan initially with the idea of quickly upgrading it to recover its engines for reuse, but by all signs the company has been very unenthusiastic about the idea. (The idea itself might not be viable, but overall ULA has shown no interest in developing a reusable rocket of any sort.) Bruno might have decided he’d rather work with a company enthused by reusability, especially as this is the future. Once ULA completes its large Amazon Leo launch contract it faces a bleak future, with many newer cheaper reusable rockets coming on line.
It could also be that Bruno was made an offer he couldn’t refuse. Money is always a powerful incentive.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Isaacman must resist any attempt to reduce current NASA lunar plans to “Flags & Footprints”. If Trump insists, Isaacman must refuse.
Trump has to made to see that F&F is a dead-end, and potentially literally that for a NASA crew! If we go F&F, and people die, Trump will own it, as far as I’m concerned.
”ULA has shown no interest in developing a reusable rocket of any sort.”
Of course not. ULA **can’t** build reusable rockets. It can’t build space stations, comsats, or lunar landers either.
ULA was created for one purpose and one purpose only: to sell EELV-class launches to the US government. Nothing else. I don’t get why this concept is so difficult to understand.
”It also means Blue Origin is very serious about grabbing a larger market share of those launches once its New Glenn rocket begins launching regularly.”
Why are you so certain that Bruno’s move is about military launches and not research, development, and production?
With ULA supposedly having been for sale these past two years and Blue widely speculated to have been on the very short list of potential acquirers, it looks as though Blue decided, in the end, that the only ULA asset really worth having was Tory himself. Now they’ve got him.
His first chore will obviously be to get New Glenn certified for War Dept. launch task orders as quickly as possible. His second chore will be to grind his prior employer into the ground – also as quickly as possible. Boeing and LockMart should already be pricing burial plots and headstones for ULA “in advance of need.”
mkent asked, “Why are you so certain that Bruno’s move is about military launches and not research, development, and production?”
I am not “so certain,” but it seems to me that if his position is head of Blue Origin’s newly formed “national security group” it seems a fair bet his primary focus will be to get Blue Origin certified and launching military payloads.
As for ULA’S “one purpose”, to sell expandable rockets to the military, that only proves my point. Bruno saw the writing on the wall, and when he couldn’t get ULA to shift gears, he decides to shift cars.
And just because that was its “one purpose” once does not forbid it to change. Any good company, when faced with shifting market forces, adapts. Those that don’t, die. And ULA appears to be a member of the latter class.
As I’ve heard several times in the software business, “If you can’t change your company, then it’s time to change your company.”
Now the $64,000 question.
Will he speed Blue up? Or slow them down further?
I hope it is the former…he always did seem to be chomping at the bit.
This may be more boon than bane…while SpaceX used to be ahead technically, this coup puts them ahead politically.
Yes, I said SpaceX used to be ahead.
Falcon shrouds can’t widen that much. New Glenn pulled off a landing in only its second flight, which seems to give credence to the Gradatim method.
Yes, yes…we know all about move fast and break things.
But Falcon hasn’t had to do that in awhile.
You know what else iterates fast?
Cancer.
While Old Space rockets are expensive, but get the job done–like Batman….Starship reminds me more of out-of-control Clayface:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DCU_/comments/1ojqfrv/its_been_said_clayface_would_be_body_horror_heavy/
”…when he couldn’t get ULA to shift gears…”
You (and a lot of other people) are missing the point. ULA **can’t** — CANNOT, i.e. IS NOT ABLE TO — shift gears.
”And just because that was its ‘one purpose’ once does not forbid it to change.”
Yes, it does! It is hard-wired into the joint venture.
”Any good company…”
**ULA is not a company.** It is a **division** of two companies. Why do you insist one division of a company sell the product of another division? It would be like insisting your Oldsmobile dealer sell you a Corvette or a class-8 truck. GM has other divisions for that (Chevy and GMC, respectively).
Heck, what Boeing really needs right now is a clean-sheet replacement for the 737. Why isn’t ULA working on that? And why isn’t ULA working on a replacement for the Freedom-class LCS for Lockheed? Because Boeing and Lockheed have other divisions for that. Insisting that ULA build all of those things is ridiculous.
”His first chore will obviously be to get New Glenn certified for War Dept. launch task orders as quickly as possible.”
Obviously? No, it’s not obvious at all. In fact, I doubt it’s even true. 1) I doubt Blue Origin needs the help for that at this point, and 2) I’d be real surprised if Tory didn’t have a non-compete clause in his contract with ULA.
”His second chore will be to grind his prior employer into the ground…”
Which is why executives usually have non-compete clauses in their contracts.
”…it seems to me that if his position is head of Blue Origin’s newly formed ‘national security group’ it seems a fair bet his primary focus will be to get Blue Origin certified and launching military payloads.”
For reasons mentioned above, I doubt it. I suspect his primary focus will be in snagging a “fair share” of Golden Dome contracts for Blue Origin and then building the physical and corporate infrastructure to deliver on those contracts. I doubt launch will even be a part of his portfolio.
mkent,
It’s anything but obvious that there is any non-compete clause in the picture here. Blue Origin is certainly a direct competitor of ULA in addition to its role as a key supplier. The fact that Bruno took the BO job strongly suggests there was no legal impediment to his doing so.
”The fact that Bruno took the BO job strongly suggests there was no legal impediment to his doing so.”
It depends on what he does at Blue. If he manages NSSL launch, then yes, he’s competing. But if he’s, as I suspect, developing systems for Golden Dome, then no, he’s not competing, since ULA doesn’t — can’t — do that.
I am struck by several things about this (seemingly) sudden hire, not least of which is just what his new job title is: Tory is now new national security group at Blue Origin. BO has said little publicly about what this job entails, but I tend to think mkent is right that it’s basically going to involve government relations and coordination of launch scheduling, rather than anything to do with New Glenn development, the initial phase of which is mostly complete now anyway. That is to say, it does not appear to be a technical job as such.
That said, if true, this raises another set of questions. The client in question is the US Space Force, and by proxy, the NRO. And these entities, it must be said, have been publicly rather vocal about their…I will use the word, *frustration* with Vulcan-Centaur’s slow and much delayed pace of reaching a full operational cadence, contending that (so they say) multiple national security payloads have been sitting waiting for launch because Vulcan just was not ready to launch them. That is *publicly*, mind you, and rumor has it that USSF officials have been even more caustic in private. And yet, Dave Limp and Jeff Bezos, who were fully aware of all that, still thought Tory Bruno would be a major asset to Blue Origin as it pursues NSSL launch contracts and making that customer content and happy with BO services in that regard. Why?
The logical possibilities are that they either think that none (or little) of these delays were actually Bruno’s fault, or that if they were to some large degree his fault, it was not in such a way that his relationships with USSF officials was significantly impinged in such a way that his utility to BO would be damaged. Either way, one can only hope that they did their due diligence on Tory’s history in this regard. This is not an unfounded concern, since Bezos oversaw a whole series of dubious executive hires for Blue Origin in the era of Bob Smith and the Honeywell posse, if I may use that term. Things seem a little better now, but so much is opaque to us.
Time will tell, I guess.
P.S. Oops, I kinda got sloppy with a cut and paste there: That clause in my opening sentence was supposed to say: Tory is now president of the new national security group at Blue Origin.
Hello Ray,
I actually don’t think this is the real danger, as such. I think the problem is more that Trump is, in decisions like this, mostly concerned with what can be accomplished directly on his immediate watch as president….that is, before January 20, 2029. He wants the credit, and he thinks that can only be completely assured if it happens whilst he is still president.
I am not sure he would obstruct productive efforts aimed beyond this window….so long as it does not obstruct the primary goal. Beyond that, even those of us who are Trump fans have to recognize that space is just not much on his radar. It’s not important to him. In this regard, of course, he is not much different from any other president since 1957 not named “Lyndon B Johnson.”
The problem is, Artemis’s architecture as it is now is poorly situated to deliver him much at all in that time frame. Yes, it seems Artemis II will get him a circumlunar flight next year, and with some luck, it might even bring the astronauts home alive. We’ve all flogged that horse to death here. But as for a landing of anything on the Moon or Mars….well, even if you are as optimistic about Starship’s pace of development as Dick Eagleson is, that’s likely going to be a tall order, if we are being realistic with ourselves, especially where a crewed Moon landing is concerned. Because even in a sneaky scenario where Elon tries to do a private mission with only SpaceX hardware as fast as he can, there are other technical developments that have to happen by January 22029 for that to happen. SpaceX would have to develop its own lunar surface EVA suits, for starters. Also, its own comms network for communication with the mission in lunar space. And there are other things, too.
Whereas it is more feasible that an uncrewed, simple Starship landing on Mars, probably without landing legs, turns out to be possible in the 2028-2029 window. (I think SpaceX has lost its shot at the 2026 window now.) But that would be an almost all SpaceX affair, with NASA’s involvement presumably restricted to any modest high risk science Payload they pay SpaceX to take, and use of the DSN network and science missions in orbit around Mars for communications.
Hello mkent,
“ULA was created for one purpose and one purpose only: to sell EELV-class launches to the US government. Nothing else. I don’t get why this concept is so difficult to understand.”
Yeah, I think both you and Bob are right, and you may be haggling over semantics. You are of course correct that this is why ULA was created. But this also bespokes a *will*, and this will has not changed since 2006. Tory loved to talk up SMART, but even if there was some technical development in this regard (and I think there was), it’s a pretty measly way to do “reuse,” and it clearly was not a priority for ULA, no matter whether Tory was personally sincere about it.
No, ULA was a forced marriage resulting from the fallout from the disastrous episode of Boeing corporate espionage and the Air Force’s desperate desire to keep both the Atlas V and Delta IV architectures alive as bonafide launch options. For Boeing and Lockheed, it was an unhappy arrangement with nothing more than the minimum needed to keep the Air Force content, and to extract the maximum possible amount of revenue from. ULA was not intended to ever achieve anything more than this. This has not changed.
Hello Jeff,
None of that matters if you can’t launch the rockets. Well, right now, SpaceX can launch the rockets. They launch 3 to 4 times a week! Blue Origin did not achieve even that many launches in this *year*.
And truth is, it took a long and winding road to reach this point, but the Space Force is pretty happy by all accounts with their relationship with SpaceX. Why wouldn’t they be? They launch whatever the Space Force needs, whenever they need it, and they have a 100% success record in doing so. Whatever some of ’em think of Elon, they really, really like Gwynne Shotwell and they really like Kiko Dontchev. The Pentagon has never had it so good.
Maybe Blue Origin can start to change that picture, but it will take ’em a while to do so. They have to get certified. They have to start launching a lot more frequently. And they have to do it with a high success rate.
Hello again mkent,
“But if he’s, as I suspect, developing systems for Golden Dome, then no, he’s not competing, since ULA doesn’t — can’t — do that.”
I kinda skipped over this point in my hasty reading of the thread, but yeah, I think you may be onto something that something like this may be part of Tory’s new portfolio at Blue Origin, too. He has some experience related to that sort of thing in his pre-ULA career, after all. And it would not, as you say, threaten any non-compete agreement he may have had with ULA.
I tend to agree that from what we know, it seems unlikely that Tory will have any *direct* role in New Glenn’s ongoing development. But we shall see!
Ula was created by the alliance as a way to spin off its money loosing business.
It had rocket contracts to complete and no profit to foresee.
They were just going to stretch it out as long as possible then fold.
As soon as Space X showed up they new they could not keep going forever.
Actually, in fact, when ULA was created, it was quite a lucrative business!
Once the Air Force caved in and gave them that launch capability contract (which was just to pay ULA to maintain its *capability* to launch — the actual payments for actual launches came under separate contracts), ULA could shove as much of their expenses into that ledger as they could remotely justify, and get guaranteed money for it. And, during the years when they had a monopoly on military launch (the Air Force settled SpaceX’s lawsuit in 2015, but SpaceX did not launch the first military payload until 2019) the Air Force was, by my reckoning*, paying ULA well over $400 million per launch, on average. Boeing and LockMart extracted almost everything above the line in those years, and that turned out to be a lot.
No, the Air Force basically forced Boeing and Lockheed into that joint venture not because either was losing money on launch, but because a) Boeing had been basically penalized out of military launches as a result of the proceedings against them for corporate espionage against Lockheed and b) the anticipated commercial launch market had been mostly sponged up by Ariane and Roscosmos . . . but the Air Force did not want to lose access to the Delta IV line (expensive as it was) as a redundant alternative to Atlas V. Profit levels really did not become an issue for ULA’s stakeholders until SpaceX’s emergence basically forced the termination of the launch capability contract for ULA in 2019 and the National Security Space Launch Phase 1 (which basically split launches between ULA and SpaceX) kicked in around 2022. Until then, Boeing and Lockheed were basically making out like freaking bandits.
But I agree with your basic contention that once SpaceX got into the military launch business, ULA’s days were numbered. Once they run through their present manifest of NSSL and Amazon Leo launches, it’s hard to see much of a future for them. And I think Boeing and Lockheed understand that. They will milk it for as long as that lasts, and then try to figure out how to wind the thing down.
* Actually, I took that figure from Eager Space, who ran these numbers a few years ago.
Richard M: That number is comparable to what I worked up back when I was writing for UPI around 2005. It also corresponds to my later calculations around the time SpaceX sued the Air Force.
The entire ULA deal was a perfect example of crony capitalism, at its worst. And neither Boeing nor Lockheed Martin have ever shone the slightest interest in running their own launch companies (before ULA) or ULA itself like a real company. Bruno tried to change that, but I suspect was stymied by the management above him.
ULA was an attempt to get around DoD requirements to have two independent LV providers. That ranks right down there with, say, a profitable yet vindictive company laying off folks after not being allowed to dump cyanide or something in a river (“see? government bad!”)
It is why I wish the downselect had resulted in OMega and Falcon. (that way solids know-how would be preserved if America never got Sentinel replacement for MM.)
What angered me most is when they tried to have it both ways. Griffin knew they’d pull the ULA stunt, thus his Ares I. ULA got the stupid trope about NASA not building rockets started–then when SpaceX came and offered a true market solution, they tried to get it killed under “range safety” baloney.
When SLS dies, I will mourn (the only one here probably).
I will not mourn ULA/Vulcan….just the lost jobs since the suits get gold-pressed latinum parachutes.
ULA was the bat in the fabled war between birds and beasts…except you could make explosives with guano. I guess that makes ULA just Kitum Cave.
Hello Bob,
“Richard M: That number is comparable to what I worked up back when I was writing for UPI around 2005. It also corresponds to my later calculations around the time SpaceX sued the Air Force..”
Thanks for the reply (as always!).
It is an interesting question . . . just how much revenue ULA has pulled in each year. ULA is, of course, not a publicly held corporation, so it does not have to do the Form 10 filings the SEC requires for such. This has left public observers to try to derive an estimate from other sources, starting with the Form 10 filings that ULA’s joint owners (Boeing and LockMart) file, because that at least lists what income each received from its holding in ULA. Also, of course, you can look at the dollar value of launch and capability contracts, but that is more work and may miss some revenue sources….
But looking at all that, my back of the napkin estimate suggests that ULA in 2024-25 is pulling in something like less than a quarter of the annual revenue it was pulling in ten years ago. This reflects the elimination of the Air Force launch capability contract, the fact that it is launching far less, and the fact that it is charging less for launch — and all three facts have been driven by the emergence of SpaceX as a launch competitor.
Now, to be sure, Tory Bruno, to his credit, has also managed to cut an awful lot of standing expenses, by slashing workforces and eliminating facilities and product lines, particularly for Delta II and Delta IV, etc. So, they also have a lot less overhead now.
Nonetheless, it seems less of a surprise to me that Boeing and Lockheed have really struggled to find a buyer for ULA, at least at the price point they allegedly were demanding. Because it simply brings in a lot less revenue than it used to.
Now, revenue will increase as the Vulcan launch tempo goes up in the coming year and beyond. But I struggle to see how ULA will equal the annual revenue they had in 2006-2015, even if they get to launching 24 times a year (a number I suspect is going to be a struggle for them to reach).
Hello Jeff,
“(that way solids know-how would be preserved if America never got Sentinel replacement for MM.)”
Well, in the first place, the USSF and NRO often have more sensitive payloads that do not like the vibration loads of solids. I think that was a factor in OmegA’s rejection. (There were other, good reasons, too.)
But more to the point, if the Pentagon feels that it is essential to preserve a SRM industrial base, it ought to be up to the Pentagon to do that, rather than NASA. And there are other, better ways for the Pentagon to do that than saddling its milestone launches with a SRM rocket.
Richard M: Since ULA is no longer getting that gigantic supplemental payoff from the Pentagon for just existing, irrespective if it did any launches (and totaling several billion), it can’t possibly bring in the revenue it once did. It has to actually sell launches, and at the price it must charge for its expendable rocket, it simply cannot compete.
It only survives now because Amazon and Jeff Bezos decided to favor it to launch Leo, even though this action was clearly detrimental to the company’s bottom line and the dividends to its stockholders.
mkent wrote: “**ULA is not a company.** It is a **division** of two companies.”
Not really. ULA is a Limited Liability Company (LLC) that is jointly owned by two other companies.
______________
Richard M wrote: “SpaceX would have to develop its own lunar surface EVA suits, for starters. Also, its own comms network for communication with the mission in lunar space. And there are other things, too.”
Or SpaceX could possibly buy some of them from whomever has developed them for Artemis. The beauty of many of the Artemis contracts for lunar landing is that the hardware (at least) is available for use by more than just NASA. Owning a private deep space communication network does make sense, for SpaceX.
_______________
Robert Zimmerman wrote: “Since ULA is no longer getting that gigantic supplemental payoff from the Pentagon for just existing, irrespective if it did any launches (and totaling several billion), it can’t possibly bring in the revenue it once did.”
That “supplemental payoff” for “just existing” was a separate contract to maintain the launch pads. Since the only customer they had was the U.S. government, there was an uneven demand for launches. In years that had few government launches, the cost of a launch was high, and in years with many government launches, the cost was low, so Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and ULA had difficulty determining a correct price for a launch, and the wide differential in price looked very bad, resulting in years with losses and other years that looked like windfall profits. The solution was to pay for the cost of the rocket launch on one contract and the price to maintain the pads on another contract.
The second contract looked like a payoff for existing. In a way, that is correct, but it was not a subsidy, it was to smooth out the prices for each launch and reduce or eliminate the losses in years with too few launches. One contract to cover fixed costs and another to cover the per-unit costs.
On the other hand, since ULA was a monopoly for government launches (and the government was a monopsony for ULA launches, because no one else was willing to pay the high price for a ULA rocket), ULA had no incentive to reduce costs, until SpaceX became a low-cost alternative. SpaceX presented ULA with an incentive to design a low cost rocket, and the Russians no longer providing the Atlas engines presented a need to redesign or replace Atlas.
The ability to be sloppy with business costs is one of the main reasons that monopolies are a bad idea, even if they are government monopolies (e.g. the DMV or the Minnesota welfare system).
Now that ULA has competition, it must do better to contain costs, and once a third competitor, Blue Origin, becomes available, there is little reason for the government to work hard to keep ULA in business.
Tory Bruno seemed to have a difficult time controlling the company to compete in the new world of the second space age, because the owners seem to be unable to accept the changes in the industry. He may have thought that he could make a difference in the space industry. Bruno may have left in order to work where he can make a difference.