United Launch Alliance head reworking firm to compete

Faced with mounting pressure from Elon Musk's SpaceX, the new chief executive of United Launch Alliance said Monday that he has been reconfiguring the company to compete, slashing the cost of national-security launches and developing a new launch system.

In an interview with Washington Post reporters, Tory Bruno said that since he was named chief executive of ULA last summer, his job has been "to literally transform the company." He also took a jab at his upstart competitor, saying it was risky to rely on Musk's relatively new space company for national-security launches.

For years, ULA, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, had the backing of two of the world's most powerful defense contractors, and there was no one to challenge its dominance in the lucrative field of launching national-security satellites into space.

But in recent months, the Colorado-based company has faced two big challenges. First, Musk's startup sued the Air Force, saying it should be able to compete with ULA for the launches. The company recently settled the suit, and the Air Force has pledged to certify it, perhaps within a few months, so that SpaceX can compete for upcoming contracts.

ULA's second hurdle is its Russian-made RD-180 engine. Musk has criticized ULA for using the engine at a time of strained relations between the United States and Russia over the crisis in Ukraine. And late last year, Congress imposed a ban on the RD-180, which the ULA uses in its Atlas V rocket, calling for dependence to end by 2019.

In an effort to quit the Russian engine, ULA recently announced a partnership with Jeffrey Bezos's Blue Origin space company to build an American-made engine. (Bezos also owns The Washington Post.)

The Blue Origin engine, the BE-4, won't be ready for test flights until 2019 at the earliest, Bruno said. And it could be 2022 or 2023 before it would be certified by the Pentagon for national-security launches.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has concerns about that timeline and told Congress last week that 2019 "was pretty aggressive, and I'm not sure we can make it."

Bruno said that he thought there was support in Congress for softening the deadline, saying many lawmakers "now really understand this complex issue ... We have very good support everywhere in Congress."

He said if Congress doesn't act, there will be a gap of a few years when the Pentagon might not be able to launch its payloads into space, which help soldiers communicate, among other things. ULA has orders for 29 Russian engines, which would "barely get us" to the first flight with the new engine in 2019, Bruno said. And it would not be enough to allow the company to continue launches after 2019, while the new engine is being brought on line.

But industry officials have said that ULA also has the Delta IV rocket, which does not use the RD-180, and could launch the military satellites - albeit at a higher price.

Still, Bruno said, ULA is far more reliable in launching on schedule than SpaceX. When asked if he thought it was risky to rely on SpaceX, he said, "I do."

SpaceX took exception to Bruno's comments, calling them "purposely misleading." SpaceX spokesman John Taylor said in a statement that "in anticipation of having to face real competition for the first time, ULA is distorting the facts in an effort to hide its own shortcomings."

SpaceX has made groundbreaking strides in recent years. It was the first commercial company to supply the International Space Station with cargo, and it recently won a contract, along with Boeing, to take astronauts there. It has said it could perform the national-security launches more cheaply than ULA.