Latest news with #ULA
The Verge
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Verge
SpaceX rockets keep exploding. Is that normal?
With yet another failed Starship test this week, in which the ambitious heavy rocket exploded once again, you might reasonably suspect that luck has finally run out for SpaceX. But this degree of failure during a development process isn't actually unusual, according to Wendy Whitman Cobb, a space policy expert with the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, especially when you're testing new space technology as complex as a large rocket. However, the Starship tests are meaningfully different from the slow, steady pace of development that we've come to expect from the space sector. 'The reason a lot of people perceive this to be unusual is that this is not the typical way that we have historically tested rockets,' Whitman Cobb says. Historically speaking, space agencies like NASA or legacy aerospace companies like United Launch Alliance (ULA) have taken their time with rocket development and have not tested until they were confident in a successful outcome. That's still the case today with major NASA projects like the development of the Space Launch System (SLS), which has now dragged on for over a decade. 'They will take as long as they need to to make sure that the rocket is going to work and that a launch is going to be successful,' Whitman Cobb says. 'This is not the typical way that we have historically tested rockets.' SpaceX has chosen a different path, in which it tests, fails, and iterates frequently. That process has been at the heart of its success, allowing the company to make developments like the reusable Falcon 9 rocket at a rapid pace. However, it also means frequent and very public failures, which have generated complaints about environmental damage in the local area around the launch site and have caused the company to butt heads with regulatory agencies. There are also significant concerns about the political ties of CEO Elon Musk to the Trump administration and his undemocratic influence over federal regulation of SpaceX's work. Even within the context of SpaceX's move-fast-and-break-things approach, though, the development of the Starship has appeared chaotic. Compared to the development of the Falcon 9 rocket, which had plenty of failures but a generally clear forward path from failing often to failing less and less as time went on, Starship has a much more spotty record. Previous development was more incremental, first demonstrating that the rocket was sound before moving onto more complex issues like reusability of the booster or first stage. The company didn't even attempt to save the booster of a Falcon 9 and reuse it until several years into testing. Starship isn't like that. 'They are trying to do everything at once with Starship,' Whitman Cobb says, as the company is trying to debut an entirely new rocket with new engines and make it reusable all at once. 'It really is a very difficult engineering challenge.' 'They are trying to do everything at once with Starship.' The Raptor engines that power the Starship are a particularly tough engineering nut to crack, as there are a lot of them — 33 per Starship, all clustered together — and they need to be able to perform the tricky feat of reigniting in space. The relighting of engines has been successful on some of the previous Starship test flights, but it has also been a point of failure. Why, then, is SpaceX pushing for so much, so fast? It's because Musk is laser-focused on getting to Mars. And while it would theoretically be possible to send a mission to Mars using existing rockets like the Falcon 9, the sheer volume of equipment, supplies, and people needed for a Mars mission has a very large mass. To make Mars missions even remotely affordable, you need to be able to move a lot of mass in one launch — hence the need for a much larger rocket like the Starship or NASA's SLS. NASA has previously been hedging its bets by developing its own heavy launch rocket as well as supporting the development of Starship. But with recent funding cuts, it's looking more and more likely that the SLS will get axed — leaving SpaceX as the only player in town to facilitate NASA's Mars plans. But there's still an awful lot of work to do to get Starship to a place where serious plans for crewed missions can even be made. 'There's no way that they're putting people on that right now.' Will a Starship test to Mars happen by 2026, with a crewed test to follow as soon as 2028, as Musk said this week he's aiming for? 'I think it's completely delusional,' Whitman Cobb says, pointing out that SpaceX has not appeared to be seriously considering issues like adding life support to the Starship or making concrete plans for Mars habitats, launch and landing pads, or infrastructure. 'I don't see SpaceX as putting its money where its mouth is,' Whitman Cobb says. 'If they do make the launch window next year, it's going to be uncrewed. There's no way that they're putting people on that right now. And I seriously doubt whether they will make it.' That doesn't mean Starship will never make it to Mars, of course. 'I believe SpaceX will engineer their way out of it. I believe their engineering is good enough that they will make Starship work,' Whitman Cobb says. But getting an uncrewed rocket to Mars within the next decade is a lot more realistic than next year. Putting people on the rocket, though, is another matter entirely. 'If they're looking to build a large-scale human settlement? That's decades,' Whitman Cobb says. 'I don't know that I will live to see that.' Featured Videos From The Verge Microsoft Build event in 15 minutes Microsoft just wrapped its annual Build conference for 2025. The focus this year: AI agents. We got a look at the open agentic web, new CoPilot updates, Linux is now open-source, and the company also confirmed it's expanding its Azure AI Foundry models list to include Elon Musk's Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini from xAI. Plus, we hear from OpenAI's Sam Altman and Nvidia's Jensen Huang. Here's everything you missed
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
At the Worst Possible Moment for Boeing, Airbus' Space Business Is Booming
"The ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year." That was the headline from a House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces hearing on United Launch Alliance's (ULA) performance in space launch last week. As Ars Technica reports, Major General Stephen G. Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, took ULA, a joint venture between Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), to task for causing "delays to the launch of four national security missions." The space company has launched its new Vulcan rocket twice and finally won certification to fly national security missions in March after the Space Force generously overlooked the fact that, during the rocket's October 2024 certification flight, one of its engine nozzles fell off. Yet despite Space Force doing this favor, ULA has failed to get Vulcan ready to launch even once since receiving certification two months ago. Granted, I personally expect ULA to get its problems fixed and resume Vulcan flights shortly. (With Atlas V due for imminent retirement, it kind of has to!) But ULA had better get a move on. Because over on the other side of the ocean, one of ULA's biggest competitors, aerospace and space giant Airbus (OTC: EADSY), is already starting to up its game in space. Airbus' space business is flying high Airbus' struggles in space are well-known. The company's new Ariane 6 rocket took nearly a decade to develop. By the time it was ready for flight, it ended up costing far more than planned for each launch. Growing pains are far from unknown in the space business, however, and it looks like the European aerospace company is finally finding its footing in space. Revenue at the company's space division, part of Airbus Defense and Space (ADS), fell 18% from 2021 to 2023 before bouncing back 10% in 2024. As 2025 gets underway, it seems to be gaining momentum. According to a new report from Payload Space, space revenue at ADS grew 28% in the first quarter of 2025. Assuming this is correct, it would mean Airbus' space business is growing more than twice as fast as ADS generally, where revenue grew only 11% in Q1. Profitability is likely to improve as well after the company took $2 billion in charges over the past two years and laid off 2,500 workers to reduce its operating costs. Contract wins are rolling in: $157 million to build two synthetic aperture radar defense satellites for Britain; $2.5 billion more to build a pair of large communications satellites for the German military; and a big contract with Eutelsat to build 100 satellites for that company's OneWeb broadband internet satellite constellation. On top of all this, Airbus CEO Guillaume M.J.D Faury made a cryptic comment in the company's post-earnings conference call last month: "We continue ... looking at different scenarios to create scale in the European space business." Payload and others believe this could be a reference to an Airbus plan to merge its satellite business with those of fellow European defense companies Thales and Leonardo to create a European "champion" that could compete with SpaceX and Starlink. What all this means for Boeing and Lockheed Martin Just because Airbus is gunning primarily for SpaceX, though, doesn't mean ULA should feel safe. In rockets, Airbus CEO Faury said it's his "priority" now to "ramp up" Ariane 6 launches at the same time as ULA's own Vulcan rocket program seems stalled. In at least one regard, this would appear to put Airbus in a head-to-head competition with ULA. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), after all, has awarded contracts to both companies to assist it in launching its Project Kuiper internet satellites into orbit. Time is of the essence in that effort, with a July 30, 2026, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) deadline looming. Whichever space company ramps its rocket launch cadence first may capture a larger share of the Amazon work. Even bigger picture, ULA CEO Tory Bruno has made it a primary objective to diversify ULA's revenue base by having Vulcan split its launches roughly 50-50 between U.S. government and commercial missions. Historically, ULA has been almost exclusively a U.S. government launcher, but this diversification initiative puts ULA in direct competition with Airbus -- at the same time as ULA is already competing with SpaceX, the 800-lb. gorilla in commercial space launches. All things considered, it's a bad time for ULA to be making its current biggest customer, Space Force, mad at it. Investors looking to avoid further Boeing drama might want to take a look at Airbus stock instead. At 29 times trailing earnings, I won't argue Airbus stock is "cheap," necessarily. But with analysts forecasting 24% long-term annual earnings growth and space revenues already growing faster than that, Airbus stock just might be cheap enough to buy as an alternative to Boeing stock. Should you invest $1,000 in Airbus SE right now? Before you buy stock in Airbus SE, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Airbus SE wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $638,985!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $853,108!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is978% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to171%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool recommends Lockheed Martin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
At the Worst Possible Moment for Boeing, Airbus' Space Business Is Booming
Air Force brass criticized United Launch Alliance's launch cadence in recent Congressional testimony. Airbus is cutting costs and growing revenue rapidly at its space business. United Launch Alliance is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and competes with Airbus and SpaceX. 10 stocks we like better than Airbus SE › "The ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year." That was the headline from a House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces hearing on United Launch Alliance's (ULA) performance in space launch last week. As Ars Technica reports, Major General Stephen G. Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, took ULA, a joint venture between Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), to task for causing "delays to the launch of four national security missions." The space company has launched its new Vulcan rocket twice and finally won certification to fly national security missions in March after the Space Force generously overlooked the fact that, during the rocket's October 2024 certification flight, one of its engine nozzles fell off. Yet despite Space Force doing this favor, ULA has failed to get Vulcan ready to launch even once since receiving certification two months ago. Granted, I personally expect ULA to get its problems fixed and resume Vulcan flights shortly. (With Atlas V due for imminent retirement, it kind of has to!) But ULA had better get a move on. Because over on the other side of the ocean, one of ULA's biggest competitors, aerospace and space giant Airbus (OTC: EADSY), is already starting to up its game in space. Airbus' struggles in space are well-known. The company's new Ariane 6 rocket took nearly a decade to develop. By the time it was ready for flight, it ended up costing far more than planned for each launch. Growing pains are far from unknown in the space business, however, and it looks like the European aerospace company is finally finding its footing in space. Revenue at the company's space division, part of Airbus Defense and Space (ADS), fell 18% from 2021 to 2023 before bouncing back 10% in 2024. As 2025 gets underway, it seems to be gaining momentum. According to a new report from Payload Space, space revenue at ADS grew 28% in the first quarter of 2025. Assuming this is correct, it would mean Airbus' space business is growing more than twice as fast as ADS generally, where revenue grew only 11% in Q1. Profitability is likely to improve as well after the company took $2 billion in charges over the past two years and laid off 2,500 workers to reduce its operating costs. Contract wins are rolling in: $157 million to build two synthetic aperture radar defense satellites for Britain; $2.5 billion more to build a pair of large communications satellites for the German military; and a big contract with Eutelsat to build 100 satellites for that company's OneWeb broadband internet satellite constellation. On top of all this, Airbus CEO Guillaume M.J.D Faury made a cryptic comment in the company's post-earnings conference call last month: "We continue ... looking at different scenarios to create scale in the European space business." Payload and others believe this could be a reference to an Airbus plan to merge its satellite business with those of fellow European defense companies Thales and Leonardo to create a European "champion" that could compete with SpaceX and Starlink. Just because Airbus is gunning primarily for SpaceX, though, doesn't mean ULA should feel safe. In rockets, Airbus CEO Faury said it's his "priority" now to "ramp up" Ariane 6 launches at the same time as ULA's own Vulcan rocket program seems stalled. In at least one regard, this would appear to put Airbus in a head-to-head competition with ULA. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), after all, has awarded contracts to both companies to assist it in launching its Project Kuiper internet satellites into orbit. Time is of the essence in that effort, with a July 30, 2026, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) deadline looming. Whichever space company ramps its rocket launch cadence first may capture a larger share of the Amazon work. Even bigger picture, ULA CEO Tory Bruno has made it a primary objective to diversify ULA's revenue base by having Vulcan split its launches roughly 50-50 between U.S. government and commercial missions. Historically, ULA has been almost exclusively a U.S. government launcher, but this diversification initiative puts ULA in direct competition with Airbus -- at the same time as ULA is already competing with SpaceX, the 800-lb. gorilla in commercial space launches. All things considered, it's a bad time for ULA to be making its current biggest customer, Space Force, mad at it. Investors looking to avoid further Boeing drama might want to take a look at Airbus stock instead. At 29 times trailing earnings, I won't argue Airbus stock is "cheap," necessarily. But with analysts forecasting 24% long-term annual earnings growth and space revenues already growing faster than that, Airbus stock just might be cheap enough to buy as an alternative to Boeing stock. Before you buy stock in Airbus SE, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Airbus SE wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $638,985!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $853,108!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 978% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool recommends Lockheed Martin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. At the Worst Possible Moment for Boeing, Airbus' Space Business Is Booming was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SpaceX knocks out another national security launch while ULA faces scrutiny
ORLANDO, Fla. — United Launch Alliance's years-long delays with its new Vulcan rocket have flipped the script for national security missions, making SpaceX the new reliable provider. The shift to Elon Musk's company at the detriment to ULA's bottom line took center stage again Friday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching the GPS III-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:37 p.m. The first-stage booster flew for the fourth time making a recovery landing downrange on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas stationed in the Atlantic. The mission to launch a GPS satellite was the second originally awarded to ULA but transferred to SpaceX under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract. Initially assigned to ULA's Vulcan, both a December 2024 launch and then Friday's launch were shifted to Falcon 9 as ULA faced an extended delay in certification of its replacement for both its Atlas V and Delta IV class of rockets. While called the GPS III-7 mission, it's actually the eighth of 10 satellites constructed by Lockheed Martin to add to the U.S.'s GPS capability in space. It's also part of an accelerated mission timeline laid out by the Space Force for national security missions in which payloads get to space in under three months from the decision to go, compared to the normal turnaround that can take up to 24 months. 'It highlights another instance of the Space Force's ability to complete high priority launches on a rapid timescale, which demonstrates the capability to respond to emergent constellation needs as rapidly as space vehicle readiness allows,' said Space Force Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader of launch execution with the Assured Access to Space program. The latest GPS satellites are three times more accurate and eight times more resistant to jamming than the other 38 in space already, according to the Space Force. The Department of Defense's desire to launch more effective GPS hardware, less susceptible to interference, forced the switch to SpaceX in both missions. The NSSL Phase 2 contract, which featured five years' worth of task orders announced from 2020-2024, was originally announced to give ULA 60% of the assignments. All of those were supposed to fly on Vulcan, with its first launches to be completed by summer 2022. But as Vulcan faced myriad delays, the final spate of task orders ended up putting 26 missions on ULA's plate to SpaceX's 22. Now another two of those missions have swapped from ULA to SpaceX, although the Space Force has said ULA will get back two future missions previously assigned to SpaceX. To date, ULA has only managed to fly one of those 26 missions, and that wasn't on a Vulcan. Instead ULA was forced to use one of its few remaining Atlas V rockets, which flew last summer. ULA, which is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that formed in 2006, had originally been targeting mid-2020 for Vulcan's debut. But it faced hurdles from COVID, acquisition of engines from supplier Blue Origin, delays from customer payloads and even a fiery test stand incident that all contributed to a nearly four-year slide. It flew for the first time in January 2024, but not again until that October, both as part of ULA's efforts to get national security certification. An issue with a solid rocket booster motor detaching during launch on the second flight, though, delayed that certification until March 2025. At this point, the first national security launch on Vulcan won't be until at least July, according to Major Gen. Stephen G. Purdy, the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration. Purdy, a former head of Space Launch Delta 45 based at Patrick Space Force Base, raised concerns about ULA's delays during written testimony released earlier this month to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. 'In NSSL Phase 2, the ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year,' he wrote. 'Major issues with the Vulcan have overshadowed its successful certification resulting in delays to the launch of four national security missions. Despite the retirement of highly successful Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, the transition to Vulcan has been slow and continues to impact the completion of Space Force mission objectives.' Vulcan's certification is at the point only partial, having only been signed off for five of the Space Force's nine required orbital needs, Purdy said. He did said ULA has increased its 'engineering resources and management focus to resolve design issues' while government personnel have been more involved with both technical and program management. Purdy said ULA's first national security launch on Vulcan will be USSF-106. The payload, Navigation Technology Satellite-3, is headed to geostationary orbit. Built by L3Harris, it's funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and a potential replacement technology for GPS. It was one of two task orders given to ULA in 2020 with a value of $337 million. The other, USSF-51, was the one that launched last summer on an Atlas V. With ULA dealing with a backlog of the Phase 2 contract missions, the company's piece of the next pie got smaller. Earlier this year, the Space Force announced SpaceX, not ULA, would get the majority of the Phase 3 contracts with a total of $13.7 billion to be doled out over the next five years. SpaceX would receive 28 of 54 planned missions, or 52%. Meanwhile, ULA's take is only 19 missions, or 35%, while newcomer Blue Origin would get seven, or 13%. Purdy confirmed ULA had already lost out on some Phase 3 contracts because of the Vulcan delays, and addressed what he deemed to be ULA's marching orders along with other commercial providers that have fallen short on delivery to the government. 'For these programs, the prime contractors must re-establish baselines, establish a culture of accountability, and repair trust deficit to prove to (me) that they are adopting the acquisition principles necessary to deliver capabilities at speed, on cost and on schedule,' he said ULA meanwhile is dipping its toes back into launches, lining up only its second planned mission of the year, a commercial launch for customer Amazon using another of its remaining Atlas V rockets. Following the April launch of the first mission for Amazon's Project Kuiper, an internet satellite constellation that aims to compete with SpaceX's Starlink system, the second mission is targeting liftoff no earlier than June 13. Meanwhile, SpaceX has now flown its Falcon 9 on 65 missions this year, including 44 from the Space Coast. ------------
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Science
- Miami Herald
SpaceX scoops up another national security launch while ULA faces scrutiny
United Launch Alliance's years-long delays with its new Vulcan rocket have flipped the script for national security missions, making SpaceX the new reliable provider. The shift to Elon Musk's company at the detriment to ULA's bottom line is on the pad again Friday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 set to launch the GPS III-7 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 during a window from 1:23-1:38 p.m., with a backup date on Saturday from 1:18-1:34 p.m. Space Launch Delta 45's weather squadron forecasts only a 45% chance for good conditions Friday, which only improves to 50% on Saturday. The mission to launch a GPS satellite is the second that was originally awarded to ULA but transferred to SpaceX under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract. Originally assigned to ULA's Vulcan, both a December 2024 launch and now this one were shifted to Falcon 9 as ULA faced an extended delay in certification of its replacement for both its Atlas V and Delta IV class of rockets. While called the GPS III-7 mission, it's actually flying the eighth of 10 satellites constructed by Lockheed Martin to add to the U.S.'s GPS capability in space. It's also part of an accelerated mission timeline laid out by the Space Force for national security missions in which payloads get to space in under three months from the decision to go, compared to the normal turnaround that can take up to 24 months. "It highlights another instance of the Space Force's ability to complete high priority launches on a rapid timescale, which demonstrates the capability to respond to emergent constellation needs as rapidly as space vehicle readiness allows," said Space Force Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader of launch execution with the Assured Access to Space program. The latest GPS satellites are three times more accurate and eight times more resistant to jamming than the other 38 in space already, according to the Space Force. The Department of Defense's desire to launch more effective GPS hardware, less susceptible to interference, forced the switch to SpaceX in both missions. The NSSL Phase 2 contract, which featured five years' worth of task orders announced from 2020-2024, was originally announced to give ULA 60% of the assignments. All of those were supposed to fly on Vulcan, with its first launches to be completed by summer 2022. But as Vulcan faced myriad delays, the final spate of task orders ended up putting 26 missions on ULA's plate to SpaceX's 22. Now another two of those missions have swapped from ULA to SpaceX, although the Space Force has said ULA will get back two future missions previously assigned to SpaceX. To date, ULA has only managed to fly one of those 26 missions, and that wasn't on a Vulcan. Instead ULA was forced to use one of its few remaining Atlas V rockets, which flew last summer. ULA, which is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that formed in 2006, had originally been targeting mid-2020 for Vulcan's debut. But it faced hurdles from COVID, acquisition of engines from supplier Blue Origin, delays from customer payloads and even a fiery test stand incident that all contributed to a nearly four-year slide. It flew for the first time in January 2024, but not again until that October, both as part of ULA's efforts to get national security certification. An issue with a solid rocket booster motor detaching during launch on the second flight, though, delayed that certification until March 2025. At this point, the first national security launch on Vulcan won't be until at least July, according to Major Gen. Stephen G. Purdy, the acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration. Purdy, a former head of Space Launch Delta 45 based at Patrick Space Force Base, raised concerns about ULA's delays during written testimony released earlier this month to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. "In NSSL Phase 2, the ULA Vulcan program has performed unsatisfactorily this past year," he wrote. "Major issues with the Vulcan have overshadowed its successful certification resulting in delays to the launch of four national security missions. Despite the retirement of highly successful Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, the transition to Vulcan has been slow and continues to impact the completion of Space Force mission objectives." Vulcan's certification is at the point only partial, having only been signed off for five of the Space Force's nine required orbital needs, Purdy said. He did said ULA has increased its "engineering resources and management focus to resolve design issues" while government personnel have been more involved with both technical and program management. Purdy said ULA's first national security launch on Vulcan will be USSF-106. The payload, Navigation Technology Satellite-3, is headed to geostationary orbit. Built by L3Harris, it's funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory and a potential replacement technology for GPS. It was one of two task orders given to ULA in 2020 with a value of $337 million. The other, USSF-51, was the one that launched last summer on an Atlas V. With ULA dealing with a backlog of the Phase 2 contract missions, the company's piece of the next pie got smaller. Earlier this year, the Space Force announced SpaceX, not ULA, would get the majority of the Phase 3 contracts with a total of $13.7 billion to be doled out over the next five years. SpaceX would receive 28 of 54 planned missions, or 52%. Meanwhile, ULA's take is only 19 missions, or 35%, while newcomer Blue Origin would get seven, or 13%. Purdy confirmed ULA had already lost out on some Phase 3 contracts because of the Vulcan delays, and addressed what he deemed to be ULA's marching orders along with other commercial providers that have fallen short on delivery to the government. "For these programs, the prime contractors must re-establish baselines, establish a culture of accountability, and repair trust deficit to prove to (me) that they are adopting the acquisition principles necessary to deliver capabilities at speed, on cost and on schedule," he said. ULA meanwhile is dipping its toes back into launches, lining up only its second planned mission of the year, a commercial launch for customer Amazon using another of its remaining Atlas V rockets. Following the April launch of the first mission for Amazon's Project Kuiper, an internet satellite constellation that aims to compete with SpaceX's Starlink system, the second mission is targeting liftoff no earlier than June 13. Meanwhile, SpaceX has already flown its Falcon 9 on 64 missions this year, including 43 from the Space Coast. ------------- Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
