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ORLANDO, Fla. — In a move to differentiate itself from rival SpaceX, United Launch Alliance (ULA) is proposing a new military application for its Vulcan Centaur rocket: a “space interceptor” capable of thwarting potential threats to U.S. assets in orbit.
ULA CEO Tory Bruno discussed this vision at the Spacepower Conference, positioning the Vulcan Centaur not just as a launch vehicle but as a potential orbital deterrent against adversaries targeting Space Force assets.
“Our vision is the ability to have a platform that is lightning fast, long range, and, if necessary, very lethal,” Bruno said Dec. 12. “What I’ve been working on is essentially a rocket that operates in space.”
Bruno has long advocated expanded capabilities for the Centaur upper stage. In 2020, he outlined plans for an enhanced Centaur V featuring increased energy, thrust, and duration capabilities to enable complex trajectories and ambitious future missions. More recently, he has promoted a “high-performance, long-duration” version that could operate for days or weeks in support of U.S. military operations.
The proposal comes as ULA seeks to regain ground lost to SpaceX in the military launch market. Once the dominant provider for U.S. military launches, ULA has seen its market share erode since SpaceX entered the field in 2015 with its cost-effective Falcon 9 rocket.
The Vulcan Centaur, currently awaiting certification for national security space missions, features a first stage powered by two Blue Origin BE-4 engines and a second stage, Centaur V, using an Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine. Bruno suggests that with upgrades, the Centaur V could serve as a long-endurance vehicle for counterspace missions and a “space interceptor.” While conventional satellites move “slow and deliberate in their motion,” said Bruno, the enhanced Centaur could rapidly respond to developing threats.
“We know that the Chinese are going to come after us in space,” Bruno stated. “If we watch an attack developing where a Chinese asset is spending a few days or a week approaching something we care about, we have something we can move there in a few hours and interrupt that attack before it starts.”
Bruno argued that the U.S. government should foster unique capabilities among launch providers rather than encouraging competition solely on price.
“There’s going to be three heavy lift providers. There’s going to be two medium-lift guys,” Bruno said, referring to the evolving landscape of the National Security Space Launch program.
Bruno suggested that the Space Force should look beyond just launch capabilities and pricing when selecting providers. “There is unhealthy competition if you have businesses that are carbon copies of one another,” he said. “If you make them exactly the same, then in the business world, we call that a race to the bottom,” he warned. “The first company that hits scale above the other companies will then take over, and a couple of years later, you got a monopoly.”
As ULA navigates this competitive landscape, the company is banking on significant business from military payloads and commercial low Earth orbit constellations. However, delays in Vulcan’s introduction have further challenged ULA’s market position, leading to speculation about a potential sale by parent companies Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
Despite these challenges, Bruno said he remains optimistic. “I have faith that we’re smart in this country, and we understand the great power that we have is the partnership between private industry and government.”
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