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Commercialization

ULA Struggles With Old Engines and New Business Realities

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
April 28, 2016
Filed under , ,
ULA Struggles With Old Engines and New Business Realities

House panel doubles authorized purchase of Russian rocket engines, The Hill
“The House Armed Services Committee voted Thursday morning to double the allowed purchase of Russian-made rocket engines from nine to 18, despite a desire to develop an American-made alternative. The committee adopted the amendment, by Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), by voice vote, after vigorous debate that did not fall along party lines. The Air Force relies on United Launch Alliance — a Lockheed and Boeing joint venture — for its sensitive national security space launches, which uses a launch vehicle reliant on the RD-180 engines.”
ULA rival SpaceX awarded its 1st Air Force satellite launch contract, Bizjournals.com
“ULA has since tried to lower its launch costs, shedding workers and re-engineering its processes to be able offer launches below $100 million. The 3,700-employee company is offering early retirement and employee buyouts this year and in 2017 in an effort to trim down to about 3,000 employees at its five locations nationwide.”

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5 responses to “ULA Struggles With Old Engines and New Business Realities”

  1. korichneveygigant says:
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    The 3,700-employee company is offering early retirement and employee
    buyouts this year and in 2017 in an effort to trim down to about 3,000
    employees at its five locations nationwide.”

    Lets make this olympic sprinter faster by making him lighter by cutting off his legs, yea thats the ticket

    • Ben Russell-Gough says:
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      Usually, layoffs in time of a re-alignment of the market can be early signs of terminal distress (although this is not universally the case – a lot depends on the leadership and their strategy).

  2. Jeff2Space says:
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    Keeping Atlas V and Delta IV (especially heavy) both flying without any launch failures and developing Vulcan at the same time is surely going to be challenging while simultaneously “trimming” down the workforce. Voluntary or not, reductions in force almost always have a negative impact on morale, quantity of work, and quality of work. Humans aren’t robots. They consciously, and unconsciously, react to changes around them.

  3. SpaceMunkie says:
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    If we don’t do this, the new Vulcan engine will turn into another F35.
    I really despise this double standard, competition is good, but only when it benefits private US corporations, as soon as it benefits anyone else – even the US government – its bad.