TECH

ULA delivers Mexican satellite to orbit on 100th launch

The rocket lifted off at 6:28 a.m. Friday from Cape Canaveral

James Dean
FLORIDA TODAY
An Atlas V rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:28 a.m. Friday lifting a Mexican government communications satellite toward orbit on United Launch Alliance’s 100th mission. An Atlas V rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:28 a.m. Friday lifting a Mexican government communications satellite toward orbit on United Launch Alliance’s 100th mission.

United Launch Alliance celebrated its 100th launch Friday, and rocketed closer to a crossroads at the same time.

An Atlas V rocket's 6:28 a.m. launch of a Mexican communications satellite from Cape Canaveral might have symbolized the start of a transformation that, as CEO Tory Bruno suggested, will see ULA "completely transform how space is used" in the coming years.

Or, the triumphant 100th launch might simply have used up another precious RD-180 main engine, whose supply Congress is threatening to cut off to end U.S. reliance on Russia for national security launches.

If ULA runs out of those engines too soon, it could also run out of the time and money it needs to develop a new rocket powered by new American engines — the system on which its hopes for transformation rest.

"Without those engines, we are unable to fly Atlas in the national security marketplace," Bruno told reporters hours after an Atlas V deployed the Morelos-3 satellite in orbit. "So that would take the workhorse of what has put two-thirds of the nation's most critical capabilities in orbit out of that market, and really almost kill competition before it's had a chance to get started."

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U.S. Sen. John McCain spearheaded a congressional ban on buying RD-180 engines for national security launches — NASA and commercial missions are not affected — last year in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Proposed defense spending next year would allow ULA to buy four more RD-180 engines for national security missions beyond what's previously been approved, but Bruno says the company needs 14 more to bridge the gap until the new Vulcan rocket is ready, hopefully by 2019.

Any bill, even one offering the smaller number of Russian engines, must be signed into law by next month for ULA to even be able to bid for a contract to launch a Global Positioning System satellite in 2018.

That contract is supposed to be the Air Force's first national security launch opened to competition between SpaceX and ULA.

Until now, ULA, a joint venture formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin in 2006, has been the exclusive launcher of national security and numerous other U.S. government missions, offering "assured access" with both its Atlas V and Delta IV rockets.

One at a time, ULA reaches 100th launch Friday

But with competition likely to reduce ULA's government launch schedule, the company must start to compete for commercial satellite missions like the one it launched Friday for Mexico's Ministry of Communications and Transportation.

"It's symbolic that this was a commercial mission," Bruno said of the company's 100th launch.

ULA plans to phase out the expensive Delta IV over the next few years and continue flying the Atlas V until the Vulcan is ready.

Revenue from the Atlas V launches, Bruno said, is essential to continuing development of the Vulcan, which parent companies Boeing and Lockheed Martin have not fully committed to funding.

Amid all that uncertainty, Bruno said he is confident Congress and the Obama administration will agree to let ULA buy more Russian engines to ensure the company can compete through the end of the decade.

"I believe they'll solve this problem," he said.

That would open up the more optimistic and futuristic outlook typically associated more with the likes of SpaceX and Blue Origin, in which ULA with a new, partially reusable rocket cuts in half the cost and time it takes to launch missions, opening space to more people and commerce.

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An Atlas V rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:28 a.m. Friday lifting a Mexican government communications satellite toward orbit on United Launch Alliance’s 100th mission. A passing cloud dropped rain at Port Canaveral at launch time, making speckled highlights on the camera lens as the rocket disappears into a low cloud.

"It's an opportunity for us to transform our business, and I think in doing so, maybe revolutionize the launch industry at the same time," said Bruno.

Friday's launch was potentially the first of three by ULA's Atlas V this month, with one planned next Thursday in California and another at the end of the month from the Cape.

Liftoff was pushed to the end of the 20-minute window when a boat strayed into the hazard area less than a minute before the original target launch time of 6:08 a.m.

The mission ensures the Mexican government's more than $1 billion Mexsat constellation will have at least two functioning spacecraft to serve five national security agencies and expand phone and Internet access to remote areas. A third Mexsat spacecraft was lost in May when a Proton rocket failed after launch from Kazakhstan.

"What a milestone and tribute to just human will and determination and inventiveness to go to space, to do something that Mother Nature just really does not want you to do," Bruno said of ULA's 100 launches. "And to do it successfully for nine years, at an average of one a month...I'm just amazed."

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean @ floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at@ flatoday _ jdean and on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace

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