ULA touts new Vulcan rocket in competition with SpaceX

[Elderberry]

Spaceflight Now March 20, 2018 William Harwood

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/03/20/ula-touts-new-vulcan-rocket-in-competition-with-spacex/

SpaceX and its visionary founder Elon Musk win the lion’s share of public attention in the commercial rocket arena, with dramatic, increasingly routine booster landings and spectacular stunts like the launch of Musk’s Tesla Roadster on the maiden flight of the company’s new Falcon Heavy rocket last month.

But arch-rival United Launch Alliance, a much more buttoned-down corporate alliance between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is responding to the threat posed by the upstart SpaceX with long-range plans to phase out its workhorse Atlas 5 rocket and costly Delta 4 rockets in favor of a powerful, less-expensive launcher known as the Vulcan.

Featuring reusable engines and an advanced, long-lived upper stage, company executives expect the Vulcan to be a major contender in the increasingly fierce slugfest between SpaceX, ULA and other international launch providers.

That battle was center stage Wednesday when the Air Force awarded SpaceX a $290 million contract to launch three Global Positioning System navigation satellites atop Falcon 9 rockets in late 2019 and 2020.

At the same time, ULA won a $351 million contract to launch two Space Situational Awareness Program satellites using an Atlas 5 rocket in 2020, along with a second flight to launch another pair of military payloads.



"But ULA says a rocket’s cost is just one factor in a sale. The company also is selling reliability and “schedule certainty.”

Schedule Certainty?

They don't even have an engine for the Vulcan yet.

[Elderberry]

https://www.geekwire.com/2018/jeff-bezos-shares-114-seconds-blue-origins-4-rocket-engine-test-firing/

The BE-4 has been the focus of attention at this week’s Satellite 2018 conference. ULA’s Vulcan and Blue Origin’s New Glenn are both due for their maiden launches in 2020, but the engine has to be ready first.

Investor’s Business Daily quoted United Launch Alliance’s CEO, Tory Bruno, as saying a decision had to be made “soon” on whether to stick with the BE-4 for the Vulcan or pivot to Aerojet Rocketdyne’s AR1 engine instead. .

Bruno said Blue Origin’s development timeline was still ahead of Aerojet’s. And the vibes coming from Bezos and other Blue Origin executives are positive. But what else would you expect?

[kevindavis007]

I like the Competition..