United Launch Alliance (ULA) is poised to launch its next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket, a critical milestone that could unlock a lucrative future for the company. This blog post explores the significance of the upcoming Vulcan launch and the implications for ULA’s position in the competitive space industry. United Launch Alliance and Vulcan Centaur are key topics covered.
Vulcan’s Pivotal Flight
Certification-2, as the next Vulcan launch is known, is a do-or-die moment for ULA. This second successful flight will clear the company to work through a backlog of nearly $3.1 billion in national security missions that it has been dying to get its hands on.
The launch will be paid for by ULA, as it is required to demonstrate the Vulcan’s abilities before utilizing these profitable contracts for the Space Force. The main goal of the mission, according to Tory Bruno, CEO of the company, is simply “to go fly a second time and have another success.” At an 80% probability of good weather, there is a lot riding on ULA to make this critical milestone.
Competing for the Future
It’s not just the first Vulcan launch at stake—ULA is also in competition for the next tranche of National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contracts that will cover the subsequent five years. Instead, ULA is going up against SpaceX and the new kid on the block, Blue Origin.
In the previous round, NSSL Phase 2 awards went to ULA for 54% of the missions in question, totaling more than $3.1 billion; and SpaceX won all the rest of that business. Yet a delay in development of Vulcan resulted in an almost even split on the final year of this contract, 11 missions awarded to ULA and ten to SpaceX.
And now, as the Phase 3 contracts are assessed, ULA plans to do anything it can to hold firm. Bruno also said: “we think we are very well positioned for that.
Diversifying the Manifest
The NSSL contracts are important for ULA, but the company is also chasing after a broad range of commercial customers to fly missions on its Vulcan rocket. The high-profileest of these is Amazon and its Project Kuiper to launch a full-fledged competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites.
It is contracted ULA for eight Atlas V rockets for the initial Kuiper launches and 38 Vulcan rockets. With a significant backlog, and other commercial customers on file, ULA has a strong manifest to keep its launch operations running for years.
Of all of these, Bruno seemed especially keen on what Project Kuiper might deliver though he demurred when it came to fine detail — including whether or not and at what price point Amazon might target the consumer market — with an excited response, saying the performance of the system is “actually pretty amazing,” and further noting that he would like to get it for his own home where he admitted internet service is less than ideal at present.
