ULA to no longer sell Atlas-5 launches
Capitalism in space: In an interview ULA’s CEO Tory Bruno has announced that they have contracts on all of the company’s remaining Atlas-5 rockets, and will no longer be offering that rocket for new sales.
“We’re done. They’re all sold,” CEO Tory Bruno said of ULA’s Atlas V rockets in an interview. ULA, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has 29 Atlas V missions left before it retires sometime in the mid-2020s and transitions to its upcoming Vulcan rocket, Bruno said. The remaining Atlas V missions include a mix of undisclosed commercial customers and some for the Space Force, NASA, and Amazon’s budding broadband satellite constellation, Project Kuiper.
This means that the company is now firmly committed to its Vulcan rocket, which also means it is entirely committed to the repeatedly delayed BE-4 engine that Blue Origin is building for that rocket. This announcement suggests that Bruno is confident that the BE-4’s problems have been overcome, and that Blue Origin is about to begin regular assembly of the many flightworthy engines ULA will need.
If so, this is really good news. It not only means that Vulcan launches will finally begin, but that Blue Origin might also begin flying its New Glenn rocket. Both will give the U.S. some competitive options for getting big payloads into space. Right now the only real choice at a reasonable price is SpaceX, and having one choice is never a good thing.
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Capitalism in space: In an interview ULA’s CEO Tory Bruno has announced that they have contracts on all of the company’s remaining Atlas-5 rockets, and will no longer be offering that rocket for new sales.
“We’re done. They’re all sold,” CEO Tory Bruno said of ULA’s Atlas V rockets in an interview. ULA, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has 29 Atlas V missions left before it retires sometime in the mid-2020s and transitions to its upcoming Vulcan rocket, Bruno said. The remaining Atlas V missions include a mix of undisclosed commercial customers and some for the Space Force, NASA, and Amazon’s budding broadband satellite constellation, Project Kuiper.
This means that the company is now firmly committed to its Vulcan rocket, which also means it is entirely committed to the repeatedly delayed BE-4 engine that Blue Origin is building for that rocket. This announcement suggests that Bruno is confident that the BE-4’s problems have been overcome, and that Blue Origin is about to begin regular assembly of the many flightworthy engines ULA will need.
If so, this is really good news. It not only means that Vulcan launches will finally begin, but that Blue Origin might also begin flying its New Glenn rocket. Both will give the U.S. some competitive options for getting big payloads into space. Right now the only real choice at a reasonable price is SpaceX, and having one choice is never a good thing.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
My understanding is that this announcement doesn’t reflect any decision on whether or not to stop Atlas 5 production- that was always capped on the number of engines they have, and they aren’t getting any more from Russia. This announcement is just saying that every Atlas 5 in the queue now has a customer assigned.
Sad. It was easy to use…not that much different than Delta II in some ways
David is correct. I remembered a post here in the past about ULA buying more RD-180 engines (Yes Bob I did search first) and found two articles with a purchase of twelve last year and six this year. I don’t know if the six was in addition to or part of the order for the twelve.
Even though the first article was posted a year ago, ULA is still in the same predicament now, waiting for the BE-4.
David Eastman,
The post does not suggest that a decision was made, other than accepting a payload for the last available Atlas rocket.
Robert,
There is no link to the interview.
Edward: The interview was done for the article at the link. They did not provide a link to the interview itself.
It’s interesting, because Bruno has also said that ULA has no plans to human rate the Vulcan. The plan is – was – to just keep flying Starliners on Atlas V so long as Boing keeps buying launches.
So either they will keep Atlas V around just for Starliner missions, or they’ll try to squeeze NASA (or Boeing, or both) into paying for human rating Vulcan?
Richard M., how can one “keep Atlas V around just for Starliner missions” when Atlas is not reusable, and all remaining launches (and RD-180 engines) are sold? Please forgive me if I am missing something obvious.
Once Vulcan is flying, ULA can probably shift some of the remaining Atlas V launches to the Vulcan to free up launches for Starliner.
Hello Ray,
The short answer is: There is nothing to keep ULA from buying additional RD-180’s from NPO Energomash, if they want to continue using the Atlas V.
The long answer is: Well, let’s review the history:
2014: ULA announces plan to develop a new lauch vehicle employing U.S.-developed engines
2016: Congress reaches a compromise to allow the Air Force (now, Space Force) to set December 31, 2022 as the end date for awarding contracts to the United Launch Alliance (ULA) for Atlas V launches of national security satellites that would use RD-180 engines.
2016: Tory Bruno announces that the new launcher, Vulcan, will be human rated. [https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/770579558726668288]
2020: Bruno reverses himself on human rating: “Boeing hasn’t been certifying the Starliner capsule to fly on Vulcan, meaning the Atlas V will remain Starliner’s ride to the ISS for the foreseeable future. ULA will have the RD-180s to handle the expected pace of Starliner launches into 2028, if needed, Bruno said. ” [Link: https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2020/08/20/united-launch-alliance-space-force-spacex-contract.html%5D
Bob’s post brings us up to today. So how to reconcile this with all that?
The first observation to make is that the federal statute only pertains to national security launches. It does not forbid NASA, or Boeing, or Amazon, or Sierra Nevada, from contracting a payload on an Atlas (or any rocket using Russian engines) after 2022.
The second observation to make is that while Bruno’s comment *sounds* definitive, it does not speak specifically to what Atlas V launches Boeing has already purchased on Atlas V. It could be that they’re set for launches on some of those Atlas V’s into the late 2020’s (it only has to launch once per year, after all). That said, I don’t know any more than you do how many of those there are.
I think what happened is that Boeing – which is both customer and 50% ULA stakeholder – decided at one point that they did not want to pay for human rating Vulcan (or at least, not a moment sooner than they have to); that it would be cheaper for the time being to fly Starliner on Atlas V, even though it is a more expensive rocket. Note that the Commercial Crew contract is fixed cost; if they did not include human rating costs for Vulcan (on top of human rating Atlas V) in the contract, Boeing has to eat that cost itself.
Hopefully Bruno will clarify just exactly what will be done with Vulcan vis-a-vis Starliner soon.