United Launch Alliance (ULA) is an American launch service provider, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. As a launch provider, ULA designs, assembles, sells, and launches rockets like the Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur, providing access to space for national security payloads, commercial satellites, and deep-space exploration missions. Its primary customers include the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, and commercial entities. Key activities involve launch services, rocket development, and partnerships with organizations like NASA and ESA for various space missions.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
United Launch Alliance launched an Atlas V rocket carrying the NROL-101 payload for the National Reconnaissance Office from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on 2020-11-13 at 5:32 p.m. EST.
United Launch Alliance has launched 141 times with 100 percent mission success as of the NROL-101 flight.
United Launch Alliance plans to fly GEM 63 boosters on future Atlas 5 missions while Northrop Grumman completes development of the larger GEM 63XL for ULA’s Vulcan Centaur.
A National Reconnaissance Office satellite launched to orbit on 2020-11-13 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.
United Launch Alliance received a $337,000,000 Phase 2 award to launch two missions comparable to the one awarded to SpaceX.
United Launch Alliance received a $967,000,000 Launch Service Agreement contract from the Air Force.
In the Phase 2 awards, United Launch Alliance’s $337,000,000 contract covers two missions while SpaceX’s $316,000,000 contract covers one mission.
In 2018 the U.S. Air Force awarded United Launch Alliance and other launch companies billions of dollars in Launch Service Agreement funding for vehicle development and infrastructure.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is in final preparations to launch the NROL-101 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office.
NROL-101 will be ULA’s 29th mission launched for the National Reconnaissance Office.
United Launch Alliance has launched 140 times to date with 100 percent mission success.
United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy attempted in August and September to launch the National Reconnaissance Office’s NROL-44 satellite but ground equipment problems caused scrubs.
United Launch Alliance is testing the swing arm retraction system and has not announced a new launch date for NROL-44.
Blue Origin opened a factory in February in Huntsville, Alabama to produce engines for New Glenn and for United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.
Of the $372,200,000 in Tipping Point funding, $256,100,000 will go to four companies—Eta Space, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance—to demonstrate cryogenic fluid management technologies.
United Launch Alliance received an $86,200,000 award to demonstrate a smart propulsion cryogenic system using the Centaur upper stage of its Vulcan rocket, including tank-to-tank propellant transfer and multi-week cryogenic storage.
United Launch Alliance has not committed to developing a heavier rocket for deep space exploration.
United Launch Alliance proposed establishing a strategic propellant reserve for cislunar space modeled after the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
United Launch Alliance’s economic models project that a government investment of about $20,000,000,000 in infrastructure could energize space activity to about $3,000,000,000,000 by 2050.
On 2020-08-07, the U.S. Air Force selected United Launch Alliance and SpaceX as the winners of the launch service procurement competition.