ULA closing facility in Texas that makes parts for the retiring Atlas-5 rocket
ULA has announced that it is shutting down its facility in Harlingen, Texas, that makes parts for the company’s soon-to-be retired Atlas-5 rocket.
The facility will shut down at the end of this year, with a loss of about 100 jobs.
This closure is actually a very positive sign for ULA. It indicates that it is streamlining its operations. For example, construction of the Vulcan rocket that replaces the Atlas-5 is all done in Alabama. One of the reasons Atlas-5 cost so much was the widespread distribution of its ULA facilities, probably done to satisfy congressional demands.
With Vulcan, ULA has instead been much more focused on making it less expensive so it can compete with SpaceX. Thus, it simplified its construction, putting everything in Alabama. (Choosing Alabama was likely to satisfy the most powerful senator at the time, porkmeister Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), who has now retired.)
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ULA has announced that it is shutting down its facility in Harlingen, Texas, that makes parts for the company’s soon-to-be retired Atlas-5 rocket.
The facility will shut down at the end of this year, with a loss of about 100 jobs.
This closure is actually a very positive sign for ULA. It indicates that it is streamlining its operations. For example, construction of the Vulcan rocket that replaces the Atlas-5 is all done in Alabama. One of the reasons Atlas-5 cost so much was the widespread distribution of its ULA facilities, probably done to satisfy congressional demands.
With Vulcan, ULA has instead been much more focused on making it less expensive so it can compete with SpaceX. Thus, it simplified its construction, putting everything in Alabama. (Choosing Alabama was likely to satisfy the most powerful senator at the time, porkmeister Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), who has now retired.)
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Harlingen is an hour away from Boca Chica…
I don’t SpaceX would want anybody wit the attitudes of Big Governmental space to infect their operation
Col.?????
Are you OK?
porkmeister Richard Shelby– LOL
Goodbye Atlas…Oh, Shelby’s junior replacement is on appropriations now.
Why, it’s as if-oh….I don’t know-another industious Shelby manspent years to know where the other Senators’ skeletons are and the price of silence is keeping that seat warm.
MuhaHAHA!
Signed-Bubba Palpatine
I don’t SpaceX would want anybody wit the attitudes of Big Governmental space to infect their operation
They’re *always* looking for people with the requisite skillsets at Starbase. Those skillsets don’t grow on trees in South Texas! If you’re a welder or precision measurement specialist at ULA-Harlingen, I don’t doubt that SpaceX would be willing to talk to you. And I suspect at least a few of the workers there *would* be interested in talking to SpaceX. You wouldn’t be in a union, but you also wouldn’t have to relocate, either. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of that is already happening.
This closure is actually a very positive sign for ULA. It indicates that it is streamlining its operations. For example, construction of the Vulcan rocket that replaces the Atlas-5 is all done in Alabama. One of the reasons Atlas-5 cost so much was the widespread distribution of its ULA facilities, probably done to satisfy congressional demands.
Probably the greatest advantage Vulan-Centaur has is that it is replacing two entirely different launcher families. With Delta IV and Atlas V being retired, that means ULA only needs one, not two, production lines; one, not two, sets of subcontractors; one, not two, sets of launch facilities on each coast. That alone will save ULA a lot of money.
Richard M wrote: “If you’re a welder or precision measurement specialist at ULA-Harlingen, I don’t doubt that SpaceX would be willing to talk to you. And I suspect at least a few of the workers there *would* be interested in talking to SpaceX.”
I don’t think that these are the people with the attitudes of Big Governmental space who would infect SpaceX’s operation. Management would likely be those people.
“Probably the greatest advantage Vulan-Centaur has is that it is replacing two entirely different launcher families. … [T]hat means ULA only needs one, not two, production lines; … sets of subcontractors; … sets of launch facilities on each coast. That alone will save ULA a lot of money.” [ellipses mine]
The formation of ULA in the first place was to save money by reducing the fixed expenses incurred by its two parent companies, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The U.S. government needed two classes of launch vehicle, and after the Space Shuttle almost destroyed the U.S. launch providers, there were only these two companies capable of providing medium and large launch capabilities. Orbital Sciences was available for small payloads, but at quite a large cost per pound, although a lower price per launch.
Now that there is a second company available for medium and heavy lift, and soon to provide superheavy lift services, it is no longer important for ULA to be the sole source launch provider. There are other prospective providers of medium and heavy launch services, and even Northrup Grumman seems to be staying in this field.
ULA is a company that used to be a virtual monopoly, but now it has competition. It needs to find efficiencies in order to compete.