For the past decade, United Launch Alliance (ULA, Centennial, CO, US) has been a cornerstone of US space industry launch system activities. The Boeing Co. (Chicago, IL, US) and Lockheed Martin (El Segundo, CA, US) formed ULA in December 2006 as a 50/50 joint venture, bringing Lockheed Martin’s Atlas and Boeing’s Delta launch systems together under joint management to ensure reliable, cost-efficient space launch services for the US government and its launch customers.

ULA is now replacing Atlas and Delta with next-generation launch rockets under the Vulcan name. Beginning with the Vulcan Centaur, this new, single family of vehicles will provide the full range of capability currently provided by the combined Atlas/ Delta families, says ULA’s VP of engineering Mark Peller. Further, he adds, “As we retire the Atlas vehicle, it will enable us to retire its Russian-built RD-1 engine.” The primary engine option for Vulcan is the BE-4, built by Blue Origin (Kent, WA, US), with the AR1 engine, built by Aerojet Rocketdyne (Sacramento, CA, US), as a backup.