By Joey Roulette
ORLANDO (Reuters) – Boeing and Lockheed Martin‘s joint rocket venture, United Launch Alliance (ULA), is gearing up to enhance a version of its Vulcan rocket to compete with SpaceX’s Starship in the low Earth orbit satellite launch market, according to the company’s CEO.
ULA is aiming to develop a customized Vulcan model specifically for the lucrative low Earth orbit (LEO) market, driven by SpaceX’s deployment of numerous satellites for its Starlink Internet service.
“We have recently conducted a comprehensive trade study to ensure our competitiveness in the future LEO market,” said ULA’s CEO Tory Bruno during a military space conference in Orlando, as reported by Reuters.
“We have identified a modification to Vulcan that significantly increases our payload capacity to LEO, putting us in a competitive position.”
The Vulcan rocket, which utilizes engines from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, has already completed two launches this year and is primarily designed to meet the requirements of Pentagon missions to various orbits.
Among the options considered for an LEO-optimized version of Vulcan, Bruno mentioned a “Vulcan Heavy” configuration with three core boosters, as well as other unique configurations with unconventional propulsion systems.
While SpaceX’s Starship is primarily intended for crewed missions to the moon and Mars, the company plans to leverage it for rapid deployment of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, putting pressure on competitors to match its capabilities.
ULA anticipates completing the development of the variant before SpaceX’s Starship begins offering LEO satellite launches, which Bruno believes could be several years away.
“We won’t be directly competing in that market for some time,” Bruno predicted.
SpaceX has conducted multiple Starship test flights, while ULA is focused on finalizing the Vulcan design before launching the rocket.
ULA is aiming to conduct eight Vulcan missions and 12 Atlas V missions next year, with Vulcan priced at around $110 million per launch and a significant number of missions already booked.
ULA, formed from a merger of Boeing and Lockheed’s space launch programs, has been the subject of acquisition talks for over a year, with potential buyers including Sierra Nevada Corp’s Sierra Space and Blue Origin.
Bruno has refrained from commenting on any ongoing acquisition discussions.