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CEO of SpaceX Rival United Launch Alliance has Resigned
The CEO of SpaceX rival United Launch Alliance has resigned. Yeah, Tory Bruno, the guy who’s been leading United Launch Alliance for 12 years, just stepped down to chase another opportunity, the company announced.
“We’re really thankful for everything Tory did for ULA and the country, and we appreciate his strong leadership,” said ULA chairs Robert Lightfoot and Kay Sears in their statement. It’s a pretty gracious send-off after all that time.
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This resignation from the United Launch Alliance CEO hits at a moment when the launch business is getting shaken up by these fresh private players. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been cranking out launches like crazy in recent years, totally changing the game. And Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin? They’re stepping up too, especially after those mostly successful first flights of their New Glenn heavy-lift rocket.
ULA itself turned 20 this year. It got started when Boeing and Lockheed Martin, those big defense contractors, merged their space launch operations. Back in the day, ULA was the go-to for NASA and the Department of Defense, handling a ton of those missions. Then SpaceX showed up, started grabbing contracts left and right, and flipped everything on its head.
One of Bruno’s major wins, or at least big pushes, was getting the Vulcan rocket off the ground. That was ULA’s next-gen project with two huge goals: keep up with SpaceX’s pace and cut the U.S. government’s dependence on Russian rockets for getting to space. The CEO of United Launch Alliance has resigned right as this thing is finally moving forward.
They smartly reused a bunch of parts from older programs like Atlas and Delta to save money. But they put their chips on Blue Origin for the engines. Vulcan hit a bunch of delays along the way, but it finally blasted off for the first time in 2024, that’s a full 10 years after they kicked off development.
Meanwhile, over that same stretch, SpaceX turned into the top dog in global launches, scooping up government deals and piling on private jobs. No denying they’ve dominated.
Still, Vulcan’s lining up some solid customers already, like Amazon for their Leo internet satellites and the space startup Astrobotic. ULA’s even talking about making the rockets reusable down the line, or upgrading them to haul heavier stuff into orbit.
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Bruno himself sounded pretty content about it all. “It’s been an incredible honor leading ULA through this big shift and getting Vulcan up and running. My job here’s done, and I’ll be rooting for them from the sidelines,” he posted on X.
In the meantime, the CEO of SpaceX rival United Launch Alliance has resigned, so they’ve brought in their chief operating officer, John Elbon, to step up as interim CEO while they hunt for someone permanent. Wonder who they’ll pick next to steer this ship.
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