“I loved being a rocket scientist, absolutely loved it,” Bruno recalls. Tory Bruno, ULA's CEO, responded to Musk by congratulating SpaceX on its award. “If SpaceX gets there, they’ll probably win every contract.”Bruno would spin this a bit differently. He said the likely explanation is that SpaceX built into its bid the cost of vehicle upgrades — such as a larger fairing and higher performing upper stage for the Falcon Heavy — to meet the requirements of the mission.The development of ULA’s new vehicle, the Vulcan Centaur, is being partially funded by a $967 million six-year Launch Service Agreement contract it received in 2018 from the Air Force. Exploitation of the cis-lunar theater will “fundamentally change life on Earth,” he says, by facilitating a “post-scarcity future for humanity.” Enormous, orbiting solar energy panels built from space materials will provide all-but-free power, leading to vast desalination projects on Earth below, to irrigate arid expanses and “stabilize whole regions of the world that today live in poverty and violence.” Hostile nations will be on the wane amid “a whole new epoch in human history.” Wow.Bruno has used his CEO pulpit to reach out to like-minded visionaries outside ULA like Chris Lewicki, a NASA alumnus who now runs Planetary Resources, which aims to operate asteroid-based supply depots for the future space economy. After taking a hard look at his company’s pricing in 2014, Bruno audaciously promised to halve the cost of ULA’s launches within three years. "Under its Air Force contracts, ULA has benefited from a roughly $1 billion annual payment to maintain its launch infrastructure that will end next year.SpaceX is a private company that does not publicly report revenues and profits. We’re in each other’s supply chains all at the same time. So they kind of need us as much as they need them.And then we put together a good deal; you know good fences make good neighbors. If one of the providers is unable to fly a particular mission, it would default to the other one, and that mission would not be counted toward the 60/40 split.The Air Force also announced Aug. 7 contract awards to SpaceX and ULA for the Bruno said he was “honestly surprised” by those contract amounts.“We were pretty gratified to see that we sold them two missions for essentially the price of one from our competitor,” he said.“We knew we were going to be competitive” on the pricing but Bruno said he was surprise by numbers because all three NRO missions are “relatively similar.”The Phase 2 contracts include other costs besides the actual price of the launch service. “He’s very engaging on social media, cheering on the partners and even the competitors, putting out ideas that are unusual and even controversial.”In the meantime, Bruno stays focused on the practicalities of re-tooling ULA for the future.
In an interview with The prize to be won in Bruno’s vision—a new epoch in human history—has an appeal that reaches beyond just lovers of space exploration.This story is a selection from the June/July issue of Air & Space magazineCraig Mellow, a freelance journalist who lives in Savannah, Georgia, has written for Musk has a longstanding feud with ULA over its history, rocket designs, and … The Atlas V will remain the company’s workhorse for several more years, but won’t be allowed to launch Pentagon payloads after 2022 because of its reliance on a Russian main engine.The Vulcan could fly from Launch Complex 41 for the first time in 2020 with an upgraded Centaur upper stage. And we just really appreciate the Air Force doing the right thing.Actually, no. We have to close a business case on Vulcan itself. I could not be more proud of them.”Outside observers are reserving judgment. You guys have to turn out stories fast. So when you guys are able to do your research and be pretty balanced I think that’s hard work, it takes effort, and I respect it. They need the volume of production that our launch service model brings. “There is no separate line for LSA-like development money.”Bruno said that while SpaceX vehicles are already certified to fly national security missions, they will need some new capabilities to meet certain mission requirements. Tory Bruno, the CEO of ULA, responded to Musk's tweet indirectly, congratulating SpaceX on the contract award. “SpaceX is very focused on going to Mars, and they talk about how the other work they do generates resources for that,” he says.