{snip}I'm still thinking about what to include so if any of you have any suggestions, I'm open to them.
On an Air Force media call: Confirming there will be five more Delta IV Heavy missions, with the final one in 2024. In addition to manufacturing costs, United Launch Alliance will receive a $1.18 billion award to support those five launches. It's not an ELC, Air Force says.
Per Col. Robert Bongiovi there are two key differences between this award and former ELC. The funds for final five Delta IV Heavy missions are only for those five missions, and it is "firm fixed price" whereas ELC was cost-plus contracting.
SpaceNews did the math. Average *total* cost is $460 million per launch.
Edit to add:https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1178793075482808320Quote SpaceNews did the math. Average *total* cost is $460 million per launch.
This contract is to keep two launch complexes running for the next 4-5 years and launch 5 missions from them. The launch vehicles had already been procured. It's not at all unexpected.
Quote from: gongora on 09/30/2019 10:48 pmThis contract is to keep two launch complexes running for the next 4-5 years and launch 5 missions from them. The launch vehicles had already been procured. It's not at all unexpected.Honest pricing would include that in the launch contract. That’s how everyone else does it.The ELC lives on. Cost plus or fixed price, doesn’t matter.
United Launch Services, Centennial, Colorado, has been awarded a $98,549,235 firm-fixed-price contract for Atlas V Completion launch services. This contract provides launch service completion for three National Security Space Launch Atlas V missions (two Air Force and one National Reconnaissance Office) previously ordered under contract FA8811-13-C-0003. Work will be performed at Centennial, Colorado; Decatur, Alabama; and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and is expected to be completed by Nov. 30, 2020. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2019 and 2020 procurement funds are being obligated at the time of award. The Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, is the contracting activity (FA8811-20-C-0001).
Honest pricing would include that in the launch contract. That’s how everyone else does it.The ELC lives on. Cost plus or fixed price, doesn’t matter.
Quote from: Lars-J on 10/01/2019 07:52 pmQuote from: gongora on 09/30/2019 10:48 pmThis contract is to keep two launch complexes running for the next 4-5 years and launch 5 missions from them. The launch vehicles had already been procured. It's not at all unexpected.Honest pricing would include that in the launch contract. That’s how everyone else does it.The ELC lives on. Cost plus or fixed price, doesn’t matter.It is finishing out DIVH. The 2 SLC's (includes never used 37A) will be handed over to USAF at the end likely with a final contract to wind down and mothball the pads, control centers, and processing facilities. Will find out in a few years if ELC continues with Atlas-V and begins with Vulcan.
The award to ULA also marks the end of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Launch Capability (ELC) arrangement. The ELC started in 2013 and supported both Delta 4 and Atlas 5 launches. ELC was sized to support up to eight national security space launches per year and maintain four launch pads at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The Phase 1 ELC was a cost-reimbursable contract. The Air Force said 44 missions were launched using the Phase 1 ELC.The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Air Force to end the ELC contract in 2019 and phase out use of the Russian RD-180 engine that powers Atlas 5.
Quote from: Lars-J on 10/01/2019 07:52 pmThe ELC lives on. Cost plus or fixed price, doesn’t matter.Emphasis mine.ELC is gone, per the law. From the Spacenews article:
The ELC lives on. Cost plus or fixed price, doesn’t matter.
Expecting a Dozen or More launches from ULA next year, Ofcourse the Mighty Atlas shall lift Starliners CFT and CTS-1 to the ISS, guide Mars 2020 to land on Jezero Crater and bring SolO to the Heliosphere at 0.28AU Perihelion! Go Atlas! Go Centaur!
Yup. Big year. We have 30 cores in the factory right now. A record for us. Decatur is hopping!
ULA gets vague on Vulcan upgrade timelineby Caleb Henry — November 20, 2019BREMEN, Germany — As United Launch Alliance prepares for the maiden flight of its Vulcan Centaur rocket, the company no longer has a clear timeline for a major second-stage upgrade.
CNBC interview with Tory. https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/11/13/the-western-worlds-biggest-rocket-factory.htmlNothing really new here but does discuss, common supplier/competior relationships in industry. If ULA wins DOD launch contract then so do Blue and NGIS as they will still profit by selling ULA engines, even if they miss out on launch contracts.Very confident that ULA will be one of two DOD launch providers.
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 11/21/2019 12:47 pmCNBC interview with Tory. https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/11/13/the-western-worlds-biggest-rocket-factory.htmlNothing really new here but does discuss, common supplier/competior relationships in industry. If ULA wins DOD launch contract then so do Blue and NGIS as they will still profit by selling ULA engines, even if they miss out on launch contracts.Very confident that ULA will be one of two DOD launch providers. More importantly he said again, that he sees flat or declining market for the next 5 to 8 years, maybe 10. That mean to me, that he don't believe that LEO mega constellation will be economically successful. Did he in some past interviews explain why.
More importantly he said again, that he sees flat or declining market for the next 5 to 8 years, maybe 10. That mean to me, that he don't believe that LEO mega constellation will be economically successful. Did he in some past interviews explain why.
Quote from: darkmelmet on 11/26/2019 07:52 amQuote from: TrevorMonty on 11/21/2019 12:47 pmCNBC interview with Tory. https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/11/13/the-western-worlds-biggest-rocket-factory.htmlNothing really new here but does discuss, common supplier/competior relationships in industry. If ULA wins DOD launch contract then so do Blue and NGIS as they will still profit by selling ULA engines, even if they miss out on launch contracts.Very confident that ULA will be one of two DOD launch providers. More importantly he said again, that he sees flat or declining market for the next 5 to 8 years, maybe 10. That mean to me, that he don't believe that LEO mega constellation will be economically successful. Did he in some past interviews explain why. An important distinction between expendable rocket companies and reusable rocket companies is that reusable rocket companies think that by lowering the cost to put payloads into space that they can EXPAND the launch market. But it's clear here that Tory Bruno is resigned to the fact that expendable rocket companies may have to live with a declining market.One other point is that Bruno said they have 30 cores "in flow right now, 30 rockets". Having been a factory scheduling manager I'm hoping that this is just PR, because none of the ULA rockets takes 2 years to build, and he stated that they plan to fly about one per month over the next two years, which means 2.5 years worth of rockets in production.Professionally I know that inventory is a financial liability, not an asset. But I also know they have had contracts with the USAF that have allowed them to build cores in advance. But the bottom line is that anything you are building that you can't immediate turn into revenue is a waste of company resources - or waste of taxpayer money.Just wanted to point that out. Especially because SpaceX just finished flying the SAME 1st stage for the 4th time. Talk about fiscal efficiency!
