Constellations, Launch, New Space and more…
TAG
“Tory Bruno”
ULA, SpaceX and Rocket Lab See Big Launch Year Ahead
ULA, SpaceX and Rocket Lab See Big Launch Year Ahead

WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) CEO reaffirmed a May 2023 flight date for the maiden flight of the company’s new rocket; SpaceX and Rocket Lab officials laid out plans for record launch years; and a Blue Origin executive said Jeff Bezos’ company might never reveal what caused one of its rockets to explode last year.

(more…)
  • Parabolic Arc
  • March 17, 2023
Report: Cash-strapped Virgin Orbit Furloughs Almost All Staff, Pauses Operations for a Week
Report: Cash-strapped Virgin Orbit Furloughs Almost All Staff, Pauses Operations for a Week

WASHINGTON — During a panel discussion at Satellite 2023 Conference on Wednesday afternoon, United Launch Alliance (ULA) CEO Tory Bruno predicted there would be a shake out among small launch providers over the next 24 months that could leave only one or two companies standing. CNBC reports that process might have already begun earlier in the day with Richard Branson’s struggling launch provider.

(more…)
  • Parabolic Arc
  • March 15, 2023
United Launch Alliance IAM Employees Approve New Contract

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (United Launch Alliance PR) — Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) have accepted the company’s new three-year contract offer. This concludes the 2022 contract negotiation process that began several weeks ago.

The new contract covers more than 600 bargaining unit employees from District Lodges #75 and #166, which includes Locals #44, #610 and #2786 performing work on the Atlas V, Delta IV and Vulcan Centaur product lines at both East and West Coast ULA launch sites and the Decatur, Alabama, manufacturing facility. The contract became effective at 12:01 a.m. on May 2. Negotiations on the new contract officially started April 11 and ended April 21, and the May 1 ratification vote was held in all geographical locations covered by this contract. 

(more…)
  • Parabolic Arc
  • May 3, 2022
Amazon Signs Contract with United Launch Alliance for 38 Project Kuiper Launches on Vulcan Centaur
Artist’s conception of Vulcan Centaur rocket. (Credit: ULA)

CENTENNIAL, Colo., April 5, 2022 (ULA PR) – United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced today that Amazon has selected its next-generation Vulcan rocket for 38 launches supporting deployment for its ambitious Project Kuiper, Amazon’s initiative to increase global broadband access through a constellation of 3,236 advanced satellites in low Earth orbit. 

(more…)
  • Parabolic Arc
  • April 5, 2022
United Launch Alliance Contracts with Milling Precision to Build Components for Atlas V Rocket
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches on the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program 3 (STP-3) mission from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021. The mission’s Space Test Program Satellite-6 (STPSat-6) spacecraft hosts NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) and the NASA-U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Ultraviolet Spectro-Coronagraph (UVSC) Pathfinder. (Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)

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.

(more…)
  • Parabolic Arc
  • February 15, 2022
ULA Vulcan Centaur Rocket to Send Ashes of Gene & Majel Barrett Rodenberry, James Doohan Beyond the Moon

Star Trek First Family Embarks on Final, Infinite Journey on a Rocket Named Vulcan

HOUSTON, January 26, 2022 (Celestis PR) — Celestis, Inc. announced today that it has entered into a launch services agreement with United Launch Alliance (ULA) of Centennial, CO. ULA will host a Celestis Memorial Spaceflight payload aboard the initial flight of ULA’s Vulcan Centaur, planned for later this year. Known as the Enterprise Flight (celestis.com/launch-schedule/enterprise-flight), the Celestis mission will launch more than 150 flight capsules containing cremated remains (ashes), DNA samples, and messages of greetings from clients worldwide on an endless journey in interplanetary space.

(more…)
  • Parabolic Arc
  • January 27, 2022
Inflatable Heat Shield One Step Closer to 2022 Demonstration
The flexible thermal protection system contains two outer surface layers made of ceramic fiber fabric, several layers of insulator, and then a gas barrier that prevents hot gases from getting to directly to the inflatable structure. The inflatable structure is a high temperature capable, flexible structure that is inflated to provide the cone shape that the FTPS drapes over. (Credits: NASA/Greg Swanson)

HAMPTON, Va. (NASA PR) — A NASA technology that could one day help land humans on Mars is about to head into final integration and testing before a sub-orbital flight test next year.

Two key components of the Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) are complete and recently arrived at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. At Langley, engineers will test the complete system to ensure LOFTID is flight ready.

(more…)
  • Parabolic Arc
  • July 30, 2021
ULA’s Bruno Denies Igniter Problems with Vulcan Centaur’s BE-4 Engine

In a recent report, the GAO — Government Accountability Office — had reported technical issues with the Blue Origin produced BE-4 engine that will power United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket. Vulcan Centaur’s first flight will launch Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine on a mission to land on the moon. That flight was scheduled for the end of 2021, but it has slipped into next year due to COVID-19 pandemic related […]

  • Parabolic Arc
  • June 23, 2021