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It’s an interesting time in aerospace, and perhaps nowhere is it more interesting than at United Launch Alliance. NASA proposes scrapping its existing plans for human space flight and instead looking to industry to develop the next rockets and spacecraft to get U.S. astronauts into orbit and beyond. A hard fight over the strategy shift is ahead in Congress, but the future of space flight seems destined to change no matter the outcome. And all this comes at a time when Centennial-based ULA, the primary contractor for government satellite missions, completes the melding of the rival rocket divisions of Lockheed...

Nearly three years after the highly complex Delta 4-Heavy rocket flew a test launch to demonstrate its capabilities for hauling hefty cargos to space, the giant booster entered service tonight with a fiery blastoff carrying a national security satellite.

Two top secret National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) ocean surveillance spacecraft were fired into the wrong orbit June 15 when the 200-foot-tall Atlas V rocket they were riding on stopped firing too early in space following launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The top secret satellites separated safely from the malfunctioning booster, however, and have enough rocket propellant to continue their mission, an official said on background. The U.S. Air Force, which managed the Atlas V launch, and the NRO have begun an official investigation into the launch and malfunction. The $83 million Atlas V used in the launch is a model...

The pending Boeing/Lockheed "United Launch Alliance" (ULA) to provide the Air Force with expendable rockets would unfairly strand taxpayers with a half-billion-dollar-a-year subsidy: that's the message the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU) delivered to Congress today, in an open letter urging lawmakers to end subsidies for the companies' current and proposed space-booster schemes. Federal policymakers are expected to consider the merger deal as early as this week. "Launch platforms for satellites can be expendable, but tax dollars never are," said NTU Director of Government Affairs Paul Gessing. "Over the past decade, the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) initiative...

A private rocket developer said on Thursday it had gone to court to challenge plans by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. to jointly launch government satellites. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., also known as SpaceX, filed suit on Wednesday in federal court charging that the joint venture by the two largest U.S. military contractors is anticompetitive and violates antitrust law. SpaceX, based in El Segundo, Calif., asked the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to block the joint venture and award SpaceX unspecified damages. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is conducting an antitrust review of the United...

The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed United Launch Alliance ("ULA") joint venture between the US Defence and Space contractors Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The investigation has shown that the proposed transaction will not significantly impede effective competition in the European Union. Both Boeing and Lockheed provide space launch services to governmental and commercial customers. Lockheed is active on the market with its Atlas family of launch vehicles as well as with Proton, a launcher produced in a joint venture with Russian partners. Boeing offers the Delta launch vehicles as well as launchers produced by...

Two of the nation's largest defense contractors, The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., said late Monday they have agreed to create a joint venture to produce rockets for the U.S. military. The surprise announcement would end a bitter rivalry and set the stage for the two aerospace giants to drop pending litigation involving the rocket business. The joint venture, to be named United Launch Alliance, would be the sole provider of rocket launches to be used by the U.S. Air Force, NASA and other government agencies. The move comes just two months after the Air Force lifted a 20-month...