private industry aerospace founded december 1 2006 headquarters centennial colorado usa key people tory bruno ceo michael gass former ceo 2006 august 2014 products atlas v delta ii delta iv number of employees 3 400 1 website united launch alliance united launch alliance ula is a joint venture of lockheed martin space systems and boeing defense space & security . ula was formed in december 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the united states . u.s. government launch customers include both the department of defense and nasa as well as other organizations . with ula lockheed and boeing held a monopoly on military launches for more than a decade until the us air force awarded a gps satellite contract to spacex in 2016 . 2 ula provides launch services using three expendable launch systems delta ii delta iv and atlas v. the atlas and delta launch system families have been used for more than 50 years to carry a variety of payloads including weather telecommunications and national security satellites as well as deep space and interplanetary exploration missions in support of scientific research . ula also provides launch services for non government satellites lockheed martin retains the rights to market atlas commercially . 3 beginning in october 2014 ula announced that they intended to undertake a substantial restructuring of the company its products and processes in the coming years in order to decrease launch costs . ula is planning on building a new rocket that will be a successor to the atlas v using a new rocket engine on the first stage . in april 2015 they unveiled the new vehicle as the vulcan with the first flight of a new first stage no earlier than 2019 . contents 1 history 1.1 company restructuring after 2014 2 launch vehicles 3 facilities 4 launches 5 controversy 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit ula s headquarters building in centennial colorado boeing and lockheed martin announced their intent to form the united launch alliance joint venture on may 2 2005 . 4 ula merges the production of the government space launch services of the two companies into one central plant in decatur alabama and merged all engineering into another central plant in littleton colorado . boeing integrated defense systems delta iv and lockheed martin space systems atlas v are both launchers developed for the evolved expendable launch vehicle program intended to provide the united states government with competitively priced citation needed assured access to space . ula had a peak of seven space launch facilities during 2005 2011 . it announced a consolidation to five in 2008 with the intent to close two of its three delta ii pads 5 and closed the two pad launch complex at cape canaveral after its final delta ii launch in 2011 . 6 spacex challenged the united states antitrust law legality of the launch services monopoly on october 23 2005 . spacex was interested in competing for government launch contracts with the falcon 9 rocket . the ftc gave their anti trust clearance on october 3 2006 . 7 two years following company formation from units of lockheed martin and boeing ula announced it would lay off 350 workers in early 2009 reducing from a company wide employment of 4200 employees in 2008 . 8 in the event ula had approximately 3900 employees by august 2009 9 ula rocket fleet capability in late 2009 ula announced that it intended to build a new headquarters campus for its operations south of denver in centennial colorado in order to move away from facility space it had shared with lockheed martin since 2006 when ula was founded . 9 in november 2010 united launch alliance was selected by nasa for consideration for potential contract awards for heavy lift launch vehicle system concepts and propulsion technologies . 10 it was announced in august 2014 that michael gass ula ceo since ula was founded in 2006 would step down immediately and that he would be replaced by tory bruno effective immediately . 11 in september 2014 it was announced that the firm had won a contract from the united states air force for us 938 million for additional work on military rocket launch services related to its existing contracts with the us air force . 12 ula announced in february 2015 that they are considering undertaking domestic production of the russian rd 180 engine at the decatur alabama rocket stage manufacturing facility . the us manufactured engines would be used only for government civil nasa or commercial launches and would not be used for us military launches . 13 needs update aerojet rocketdyne holdings inc submitted a 2 billion offer to purchase the joint venture on september 8 2015 . 14 according to industry officials the bid if successful would likely create a unified leadership for the company . 15 on september 16 2015 spokesperson todd blecher for joint owner boeing commented that aerojet rocketdyne s bid was never seriously entertained and rejected the offer . 16 17 company restructuring after 2014 edit in october 2014 ula announced a major restructuring of processes and workforce in order to decrease launch costs by half . one of the reasons given for the restructuring and new cost reduction goals was competition from spacex . ula intends to have preliminary design ideas in place for a blending of the atlas v and delta iv technology by the end of 2014 to build a successor that will allow them to cut launch costs in half . 18 the restructuring is intended to facilitate ula s shift into providing widespread access to space and growing the customer base to include significant commercial customers in addition to the principally us government customers of ula s first decade . ceo tory bruno stated in november 2014 that he intends to transform the company and reorganize it to make it more agile and establish new business models to adapt to the new environment . these changes will lead to improvements in how ula interacts with its customers both governmental and commercial shorter launch cycles and launch costs cut in half again . 19 ula intends to shrink the number of company launch pads from six in 2008 and five in 2015 to only two by 2021 as they ramp down the legacy atlas v and delta iv launch vehicles . 5 in may 2015 ula announced it would decrease its executive ranks by 30 percent in december 2015 with the layoff of 12 executives . the management layoffs are the beginning of a major reorganization and redesign as ula endeavours to slash costs and hunt out new customers to ensure continued growth despite the rise of spacex . 20 21 in may 2015 ula stated that it would go out of business unless it won commercial and civil satellite launch orders to offset an expected slump in u.s. military and spy launches . 22 launch vehicles edit united launch alliance is currently flying atlas v delta iv delta iv heavy delta ii in 2014 ula began development of a new launch vehicle vulcan to replace both the atlas and delta lines of vehicles . boeing and lockheed are investing in the new rocket for a duration of only one quarter at a time so long term development is not assured by current corporate priorities . 23 24 ula has further stated in 2015 that they must win both commercial and civil nasa space flight contracts in addition to us government military missions or they would be forced to go out of business . 25 the ten year development horizon for the launch vehicle also includes a new second stage the advanced cryogenic evolved stage or aces that is not planned to be fielded prior to 2023 . 26 27 facilities edit ula program management engineering test and mission support functions are headquartered in centennial colorado . manufacturing assembly and integration operations are located in two buildings one at decatur alabama and the other in harlingen texas . 8 1 ula launches from both coasts of the united states depending on the customer s desired orbit . east coast atlas v launches take place from launch complex 41 while east coast delta iv launches take place from launch complex 37 . both are located in cape canaveral florida . west coast launches take place from vandenberg air force base in southern california . 8 ula has announced plans to reduce the number of launch pads in use from five in 2015 to only two by 2021 as part of overall company restructuring and the transition from the legacy atlas v and delta iv launch vehicles and to a next generation launch vehicle ngls . 5 launches edit main articles list of atlas launches and list of thor and delta launches united launch alliance fleet left to right delta ii delta iv delta iv heavy atlas v 400 series atlas v 500 series commercial and international launches aboard atlas v and delta rockets are managed by lockheed martin commercial launch services and boeing launch services respectively . the first launch conducted by ula was of a delta ii from vandenberg air force base on december 14 2006 . 28 the rocket carried the usa 193 satellite for the national reconnaissance office . this satellite failed shortly after launch and was intentionally destroyed on february 21 2008 by an sm 3 missile fired from the ticonderoga class cruiser uss lake erie . 29 on june 15 2007 the engine in the centaur upper stage of a ula launched atlas v shut down early leaving its payload a pair of nro l 30 ocean surveillance satellites in a lower than intended orbit . 30 nonetheless the mission was declared a success by the customer . 31 on october 2 2015 ula successfully completed its 100th mission with the launch of mexsat 2 also known as morelos iii from cape canaveral aboard an atlas v. 32 a launch of the atlas v rocket on march 22 2016 had a minor first stage anomaly that led to shutdown of the first stage engine approximately five seconds before anticipated . the anomaly forced the centaur upper stage of the rocket to fire for approximately one minute longer than planned using reserved fuel margin . the preplanned deorbit burn successfully deorbited the stage but not precisely within the designated location . the anomaly marks the first atlas v anomaly in over eight years to be publicly acknowledged by ula . 33 controversy edit ula launch service costs under the block buy with the introduction of competition from lower cost launch providers and the increasing costs of ula launches year over year increased attention has been paid to the amounts ula has received for us government launch contracts and for its annual government funding of 1 billion for launch capability and readiness . in particular an uncontested us air force block buy of 36 rocket cores for up to 28 launches valued at 11 billion drew protest from competitor spacex . spacex has claimed the cost of ula s launches are approximately 460 million each and has proposed a price of 90 million to provide similar launches . 34 in response former ula ceo michael gass claimed an average launch price of 225 million with future launches as low as 100 million . 35 ula released contract values to the public and ceo tory bruno testified before congress in march 2015 that whilst ula receives government subsidies to conduct national security launches the same is true of spacex who receive funding to develop new capabilities and the use of low or no cost leases of previously developed launch infrastructure . 36 a political controversy arose in march 2016 following public remarks by ula vp of engineering brett tobey that included comments that were resentful of spacex and dismissive of one of the two