Tory Bruno, the CEO of United Launch Alliance has resigned from the job “to pursue another opportunity,” according to the company. “We are grateful for Tory’s service to ULA and the country, and we thank him for his leadership,” United Launch Alliance (ULA) chairs Robert Lightfoot and Kay Sears said in a statement.
ULA is a 20-year-old company created by combining the space launch businesses of defense contractors Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It used to be a main provider to both NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) until SpaceX came along. One of Bruno’s biggest projects during his time at ULA was overseeing the development of the joint venture’s next-generation rocket, Vulcan. This project had two main objectives — to help ULA keep pace with SpaceX, and to reduce the U.S. government’s reliance on Russian rockets to access space.
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Vulcan leveraged parts from prior ULA rocket programs like Atlas and Delta in order to cut costs, though it got engines from Blue Origin. The project suffered numerous delays before it finally lifted off for the first time in 2024, a decade after it started development. SpaceX became the world’s most prominent space launch provider in the meantime, winning government contracts and taking on numerous private missions.
Customers for Vulcan include Amazon — for its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) internet satellites — and space startup Astrobotic. The company is also looking to make the rockets more reusable, or even fly upgraded versions that could theoretically take heavier payloads to space.
“It has been a great privilege to lead ULA through its transformation and to bring Vulcan into service. My work here is now complete and I will be cheering ULA on,” Bruno said in a post on X.
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Chief Operation Officer John Elbon was named interim CEO. “We have the greatest confidence in John to continue strengthening ULA’s momentum while the board proceeds with finding the next leader of ULA. Together with Mark Peller, the new COO, John’s career in aerospace and his launch expertise is an asset for ULA and its customers, especially for achieving key upcoming Vulcan milestones,” Lightfoot and Sears said.
Bruno’s resignation comes at a time when newer private spaceflight companies are increasingly driving the launch market. Musk’s SpaceX has increased its launch cadence in recent years, and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin seems to now be a serious player after the mostly successful inaugural missions of the New Glenn heavy-lift rocket.
Meanwhile SpaceX is reportedly moving ahead with plans for an initial public offering that would seek to raise significantly more than $30 billion. Sources suggest the company could raise $30 billion or more, with a speculative valuation of around $1.5 trillion, positioning SpaceX among the most valuable companies globally.