United Launch Alliance Contracts with Milling Precision to Build Components for Atlas V Rocket
CENTENNIAL, Colo., Feb. 15, 2022 (ULA Press Release) – United Launch Alliance announced today that it has contracted with Milling Precision in Wichita, Kan., to supply components for its Atlas V rocket. The Atlas V rocket has launched 90 times with payloads for the Department of Defense, NASA and commercial customers.
“I had the opportunity to visit Wichita recently and meet with current and potential suppliers,” said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO. “During my time there I was very impressed with the highly skilled workforce and aerospace industry knowledge that already exists. As we continue our support to the nation as its premier launch services provider, we looking forward to working with Milling Precision to deliver those critical missions.”
Milling Precision will be adding to ULA’s diverse network of suppliers providing fabricated and machined parts. Their talented and committed workforce will add to ULA’s first in class launch and schedule capability meeting our customers’ needs and ULA’s best value.
ULA is no stranger to the tremendous aerospace suppliers of the great state of Kansas. Currently ULA works with 16 suppliers and as our launch demand grows we continue to look for new and talented suppliers to meet our stringent requirements.
With more than a century of combined heritage, ULA is the nation’s most experienced and reliable launch service provider. ULA has successfully delivered more than 145 missions to orbit that aid meteorologists in tracking severe weather, unlock the mysteries of our solar system, provide critical capabilities for troops in the field, deliver cutting-edge commercial services and enable GPS navigation.
For more information on ULA, visit the ULA website at www.ulalaunch.com, or call the ULA Launch Hotline at 1-877-ULA-4321 (852-4321). Join the conversation at www.facebook.com/ulalaunch, twitter.com/ulalaunch and instagram.com/ulalaunch.
46 responses to “United Launch Alliance Contracts with Milling Precision to Build Components for Atlas V Rocket”
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Guess they have to keep the Atlas V assembly line open for some unknown reason. *whistles innocently*
I’m thinking this is because they shut down some in-house part of the production line, thinking Vulcan would be up and running by now. Now it’s cheaper to get someone else to make those parts. Or perhaps it’s the only option they now have.
Didn’t Bruno show in the “Smarter Every Day” tour that Vulcan and Atlas were being milled on the same milling machines? If Ukraine goes down, those Russian engine deliveries are going to stop, and SpaceX will be getting a lot more business.
Even in wanting SpaceX to succeed, I want other players to stay in the game to keep them on their toes. Or to take the baton if they don’t.
Then they better step up their game instead of hoping SpaceX stumbles and the government lets them pick it over.
Look at how bad the performance of Boeing was on Starliner. If not for SpaceX the folks at NASA would have needed to keep going to Russia with their hats in their hands and bags of money to reach the ISS.
I suspect, like firms that were successful building steam engines, none make the transition successfully.
Somebody has to step up their game yes. Near certain it won’t be Boeing, and likely not Lockheed, though their spin off ULA has an outside chance. I believe it is a near certainty that there are players that have a solid chance of crowding SpaceX or even taking the baton even without a stumble. From my cheap seat I don’t know which it might be, or even if there are several viable candidates.
I have a strong preference for General Motors trucks while being well aware that Ford, Dodge, and several foreign manufacturers keep them in line. Others have different preferences that keep those competitors in business which in turn keeps GM from going off the deep end. Being a fan of SpaceX doesn’t mean wanting them to be sole source just as I don’t want GM to be sole source.
It is my opinion that a much smaller vehicle than Starship will be more responsive to whatever markets develop. Not knowing exactly what form that might take, I want Starship to move forward as well as any viable alternatives.
If there are competitors they will likely be by SpaceX executives leaving to start competitors much as General Motors emerged from an earlier company that Henry Ford founded and Chrysler by Walter Chrysler leaving General Motors.
That’s already happened to a considerable degree. But I don’t see any of the “Chryslers” having what it would take to knock off “General Motors.” They will complete the comprehensive destruction of OldSpace begun by SpaceX. The best of them will find ways to survive in a solar system dominated by SpaceX and its subsidiaries.
So your belief in some unnameable challenger able to knock off SpaceX is, in essence, faith-based. I’m an atheist.
Actually you’re not atheistic at all regarding Elon and SpaceX. You take it as a matter of faith that they will keep climbing and blow past all obstacles. Our dinner bet was for Starship to be operational or not by 1 January 2024. I didn’t predict the environmental regulatory quagmire last spring or any other specific stoppage. You were quite convinced that there were no barriers at all that they wouldn’t blow past with barely a pause. That I don’t name specific problems other than hubris you seem to take as evidence that those problems either don’t exist or don’t matter.
SpaceX is THE player right now and the foreseeable future. We agree that they are doing very good work. Where we don’t agree is on them being unstoppable, and on the potential of other players. The history of business, technology, and entrepreneurship suggest that there will be major players crowding them within a decade or less. That has the caveat that a space based economy of some form develops plenty of demand.
My limited involvement in the industry decades back considered several tech concepts that could be game changers if valid. I can’t dismiss the possibility that one or more competitors might make an end run on SpaceX. Again I don’t predict specifics, just an awareness that there are many roads to the stars and it might be another that finds a better route.
My “faith” in Elon and SpaceX is based on track record, not membership in a cult of personality. There are all sorts of low-probability events that could take down SpaceX and/or Elon. A major nuclear war with the PRC comes to mind. But I see no evidence that any other space business entity – or entire nation, for that matter – has what it would take to shunt SpaceX aside. Your posited Nemesis/Deus Ex Machina may be out there, but, if so, it is keeping a surpassingly low profile.
Whatever. You think Elon is the only game in town and I don’t. 22 months left for you to win the bet, want to double down??
Just for fun…here are my predictions and Duh’s predictions from last August:
P.K. Sink
Well…since we’re all speculating:
2022-Full orbit
2023-Landing and reuse
2024-Orbital refueling
2025-Lunar cargo landing
2026-Lunar crew landing
Duheagle
2021, 2022, 2022, 2023, 2024.
I think your scenario is realistic as long as there are no major showstoppers. Duheagles’ requires near perfection which is where I fall out. I am not predicting specific showstoppers, but they can be regulatory (environmental now), technical in several directions, and business as Starlink alone doesn’t begin to require the projected capacity.
I have been involved with ventures that bet the company. The problem with that is that sometimes you lose. And absent family money or more investors, it takes years to recover.
Starship does not have to come close to the more wild eyed claims of 150 tons for $2M and thrice daily turnarounds. 10% that good would be an eye popping advance on capabilities.
I am disappointed that Orbital refueling has not been developed yet. A refueled F9 upper could do high energy missions with large payloads. A friend was doing detailed work on this a dozen years back.
I read his comment as more history-based than faith-based. If you stretch out the timeline far enough into the future, I suppose he’s right. Some little bean-counting panty-pooper may already be out there, just waiting to grow up and make a complete mess of SX after Elon and Gwynne are gone.
That’s always a possibility. I wonder a bit if Elon isn’t already doing at least a modicum of succession planning. There isn’t any way to directly replace Elon, but a pair or triumvirate that, in combination, has a substantial fraction of his abilities might do the trick. Jared Isaacman has been getting pretty chummy with Elon lately, for example. Like Elon, he made his first fortune in Web software. Perhaps he is also capable of becoming several kinds of auto-didactic engineer even if not at Elon’s genius level. He’s 11 years Elon’s junior and more fit. If a younger version of Shotwell can be found, that might ensure another good post-Elon generation of SpaceX leadership. Maybe Lauren Lyons would come back after she makes her bones building up Firefly?
Yes. I expect ULA to be gone, AJR to be strictly a tactical missile solid motor maker and the current space-related divisions of LockMart, Boeing and NorGrum to be all or mostly shuttered by decade’s end. SpaceX has already ripped large, bloody chunks out of all of them. And it isn’t done with such feasting by any means. When SpaceX has had its fill, the rest of NewSpace will close in and complete the stripping of the carcasses.
It appears that all that President Putin was doing with the Ukraine was seeing if he could pull NATO’s chain and make them look paranoid while showing the world how weak NATO was militarily. It looks like he succeeded.
If Russia takes over the Ukraine it won’t be by force but by stealth by getting a pro-Russia government elected.
That’s the Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity take, and we know the gifted sources of steady well thought out analysis they are. If you have sources that show the footprint of the Russian deployment is not real, then the basis of what I’m about to say is flawed, but. The troops are there. Verified by E8 and satellite. That said we have yet to see any public source intelligence source synthesize a full deployment inventory using the satellite capabilities available to the public. But if you assume the troops are really there then you can’t ignore that footprint. If you’ve already come a conclusion with the forces in place and forward deployed, then you’re fine to do so and put it out in public. Noted. Of course, should what you and Mr Carlson say the purpose is and then that prediction not come true, I’ll of course remind you of it in times ahead. That’s an unfortunate stance you’ve taken at this time. If you believe the Russian forces are really there, you have to ask yourself why it was done. What purpose did it serve? Make Mr Carlson look good in a dead time of politics? Even Karkhiv is pro Ukrainian and anti-Russian, NATO just got a wake up call, and you can bet that the process of Ukraine filling with Western weapons systems and money is really going to pick up. What did the Russians get out of this great expense which you assert was to do nothing but make people look bad. Again, if you accept the presence of the forces and weapons, if you accept the deployment is real, what was it’s real purpose? This is not over yet.
I don’t watch either, or any of the talking heads on TV. I just know Russian history and the games their leaders like to play with the west.
There really isn’t much difference between Putin, Stalin or Ivan the Terrible in terms of their behavior or the political games they play. When you are analyzing the Russians just think of the Romulans.
It really doesn’t matter how much western weapons flow into the Ukraine. It will be taken over from the inside not by invasion. That is the way of the KGB.
The troops are there just to spook the west, just as was the case in East Germany, President Putin’s old stooping ground. If the Germans and the French will decide to spend more on their military the Russian will know they still want to be players in the game. If not, than Russia is going to know that they aren’t of any importance anymore.
no. you have misjudged Putin. this is just starting
Yes, but not in the matter you think. Just look at the hit the economy of the Ukraine is taking. Bad economy equals new President in the Ukraine. And likely the Russians will make sure it is one to their liking.
that is not what they want and even if it was this wont get it
what the Russians want to do (along with the Chinese) is end the notion of American superiority as a superpower. This notion is all a state of mind and right now; with the political system in taters thanks to four years of orange man, the military weak and lots of other things; the way to do that is simply do regime change in Ukraine directly. they are slowly amassing the same reasons and resources we did in Iraq and right now is unclear we have anything more than harsh words. Putin is no more afraid to use his military than we were in 2002
But why use it if you are able to get it more easily by just changing the regime by manipulation?
Incidentally I don’t see any reason for Russia to withdraw their troops since the bulk of them are still in Russia, contributing to the Russia economy. It’s the US and other NATO countries that are going to have to pay to base their troops in foreign countries like Poland and Romania making it a win for Russia.
because nothing costs more than troops at the barracks than troops deployed away from them. the logistics are staggering the accomadations poor and its not very morale inducing. Most Russian troops have their families near the bases…absence is moral inhibiting
why use it? when the US does nothing but shout harsh words and they suceed where we failed, even if in a temp mode. well go visit the US for 2002-03 Bush was a hero among some, ready to conquer the world.
Worrying about dependents has never been the issue in Russia as here. Also for Russia it’s like having troops from Ft. Knox being stationed outside of Detroit or in New York State.
I dont agree with that. Putin will use the troops or move them back to the barracks. I think he will use them he is waiting for colder weather
The weather has been plenty cold enough for quite awhile now. The beginnings of Spring thaws are only weeks away. If the Russians don’t move pretty soon, they’ll be stuck in Spring mud.
I think its coming soon. quite soon
Yes, you keep saying that. We get it. But I think if there is no move in the next six weeks there will be no move at all. And I don’t think there will be such a move at all.
we will see. for all I know Biden has called their bluff. if so yeah
The U.S. would probably be ahead, economically, to put more troops in places like Poland, Romania and the Baltics with lower costs of living than Germany.
The current low estate of U.S. politics and the U.S. military is due to a single disastrous year of Root Vegetable Joe. The Chinese and the Russians were both afraid of Trump. No one is afraid of senile Joe.
I’m sure the Russians would like to do that – they did it once before – but I think that ship has now sailed. The Ukrainians seem to be doing what the Baltic nations did and forcing their remaining ethnic Russian population to leave and go to either the part of Ukraine the Russians now occupy or all the way to Russia itself.
The real reason the weapons from the West are important in Ukraine is not in keeping the Russians out of the country. It’s in harassing them endlessly once they are there, thus creating another Afghanistan for Russia. Here is a good summary:
https://www.thedrive.com/th…
no its just starting. this is following the Iraq pattern
No, it isn’t over. Russia might as well have these troops where they are as anywhere else. It allows Russia to continue its growly-bear-prowling-the-border act indefinitely at no significant additional expense over what it would take to keep all these troops on active duty anyway. But Russia hasn’t got either the weapons or the troops needed to completely conquer and occupy Ukraine. It couldn’t do that in Afghanistan when it was still the USSR and had both more troops and more weapons to throw at the problem. It will be content to keep what Ukrainian territory it already has and to keep the rest out of NATO.
You are wrong. These deployments are very expensive. Without building full garrisons, these field deployments are going to drain the Russian army of funds. If they do nothing, Putin will pay a real price. I think he might get thrown out of office if he does not order an invasion. If the Ukrainian Army performs well and generates a large Russian body count, Putin may pay a huge political price as well, not to mention the new Cold War that will be sparked when the rest of Europe watches Ukraine get raped live on social media.
“Field deployments” can be quickly enough transformed into permanent garrisons. Especially given the rather Spartan nature of Russian garrisons.
Putin is the lead crook in a kleptocracy. His oligarch buddies don’t care if he invades Ukraine, they’re too busy completing the looting of the Motherland. Any real political opposition gets jailed or poisoned.
You are quite correct that an actual invasion of Ukraine would likely be quite bloody, expensive and politically risky – which is why I don’t think Putin is going to do one.
Again, not true. Russian garrisons can be quite advanced. They have a majority of their volunteer forces in this deployment. A garrison for these soldiers will have to be of similar quality as they built in East Germany to keep them combat ready and to keep the volunteers happy.
Putin is lead crook. And an invasion of Ukraine has to lead to economic gain for the other oligarchs in order to keep their loyalty. The Ukrainians can make this unprofitable.
I think the invasion will take the form of a siege of Kiev with the government held captive in the city, and incursions into the oblasts with insurgencies. and maybe a siege of Karkhiv. This will draw the Ukrainian Army into two masses. If I were the Ukrainians I’d move the capital to Lviv and establish a complete line of succession. That the Ukrainians have not done this makes be believe that they agree with you.
What no one seems to be asking is if the Russians updated any of the deception techniques we used during WWII to make it look like there are more troops there than there really are. If so it won’t be the first time they fooled the West.
We can speculate, but from where you and I sit we can’t answer that. However consider that Planet Labs provides multi-spectral imaging, and IcEye provides SAR imaging. Those two sources would provide a wealth of data. Nobody is buying these products and providing a set of products for the public to consume. We’re still stuck in choosing who we have a wider degree of faith in, when we really don’t have to. It’s just that nobody providing data collection and analysis for the public yet.
Keep in mind, the Russians are not denying the deployment. I think it’s real. As I write this, Russia is kicking up froth about events in the insurgent Oblasts.
I think it’s real too, though Matula certainly has a point. The inflatable rubber “tanks” of Patton’s phantom army of WW2 wouldn’t fool a modern SARsat, but an inflatable “tank” with an interior aluminized Mylar envelope probably would.
Yes, from what I can tell at this distance, the Ukrainians do agree with me. I think their past experiences with Biden and his boy don’t incline them to think his seeming eagerness for a showdown with Russia is any more in their best interests than were his previous involvements there. And they’re right. They have no real friends in either DC or Moscow.
What Soviet garrisons were like in East Germany is irrelevant. No one currently on active duty in the Russian Army ever served there as the last Russians left Germany over 30 years ago. The quality of garrison life in Russia, even for volunteers, has apparently deteriorated quite a bit since the “glory” days of the USSR. If the current threat force is mostly volunteer it can only be because the Russian officers know that most conscripts would run and defect at the first sound of gunfire. If the Russians dig in for an extended stay along the Ukrainian frontier it won’t be in digs equivalent to what the USSR could afford. And, if said digs are inferior even to the deteriorated present-day facilities further east, well, the Russians will just rotate the volunteers back to the better facilities and replace them with conscripts. If you’re never actually going to invade, after all, who needs top-line – or even particularly reliable – troops?
If Russia is so incautious as to actually invade, I expect the Ukrainians to do what they did in WW2 – first against the Soviets alongside the Germans and then against the Germans alongside the Soviets – namely, form a lot of small partisan militias and bleed the Russians in innumerable small actions while avoiding set-piece encounters like the plague.
The Ukrainians haven’t been buying any heavy weapons, just lots of man-portable stuff capable of doing a lot of economically asymmetric damage to the Russians. And the Russians know this. Which is why they won’t invade.
Russia only got the pieces of Ukraine it got in 2014 because those invasions were essentially surprise attacks. There’s no surprise this time – quite the contrary.
what makes you say that? there has been no substantial Russian troop draw down
Tankage sections are being milled for Vulcan, but probably on equipment formerly used for Delta IV, not Atlas V based on the much closer correspondence of respective diameters. I think Lee is right.