United Launch Alliance Faces Engineer Shortage, Struggles To Meet Profit Projections

According to a report released by BNN Bloomberg today, ULA is facing some headwinds in engineer retention, and worse, meeting it’s profit goals.

Despite a significant exodus by ULA engineers for greener pastures, ULA CEO Tory Bruno remains confident in ULA’s ability to meet its future challenges. He stated that all the necessary components for 2025 launches are being assembled, with boosters already stacked up in Florida. “I have all the tools I need, I have all the facilities. I’m not concerned about having the rockets ready,” Bruno said. “All I need are my payloads to show up and I will fly them.”

For more than a decade, United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between aerospace giants Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., held a firm grip on Pentagon contracts for launching spy satellites into space. ULA was the Pentagon’s go-to partner, enjoying a monopoly that seemed unshakable. However, the landscape of the space industry has shifted dramatically, and ULA’s dominance is now being seriously challenged by newer, more agile competitors.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has rapidly gained ground, capturing approximately 40% of Pentagon contracts over the past few years. The company’s innovation and competitive pricing have made it a formidable player in the industry. Adding to ULA’s woes, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is on the cusp of entering the fray with its New Glenn rocket, which threatens to take an even larger slice of the market once it is certified for military use.

Meanwhile, ULA is grappling with internal challenges that are compounding the pressure from its competitors. According to a source familiar with the matter, ULA has seen its budgets overrun and revenues decline, largely due to customer delays that have pushed back scheduled launches. These financial strains have led to discussions within Boeing and Lockheed about potentially offloading ULA, signaling waning interest from its parent companies.

A spokesperson for ULA acknowledged that while the company remains profitable, its earnings have fallen short of internal targets. These financial difficulties have contributed to operational delays, particularly in preparing for critical Pentagon missions. ULA faced significant hurdles in gearing up for its last launch on July 3oth. Quality control issues required the company to bring in additional workers from 500 miles away to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to ensure the mission was ready on time, and it was.

This was not the first time ULA had to fly in personnel from other states to address unexpected issues. For its upcoming Vulcan rocket debut, a crew from Decatur, Alabama, was dispatched to Florida to fix “significant” out-of-sequence factory work. According to internal documents, these repairs were too complex and time-consuming for the Florida launch operations team to handle alone.

ULA’s spokesperson explained that moving experienced personnel between sites is a common practice within the company. In the case of the Vulcan rocket, a team of skilled technicians was brought in to replace leaking actuators. However, the company is facing another, more pressing issue: a talent drain. With a record number of launches planned for next year, ULA is losing critical staff to competitors like Blue Origin and SpaceX. This year alone, ULA has seen about 45 of its 105 Launch Operations engineers depart from its primary launch site in Florida. The loss of these experienced engineers has already delayed work on future missions, according to Bloomberg’s source.

The exodus of skilled personnel is not just a logistical challenge; it’s also affecting ULA’s ability to retain its position as the U.S. military’s preferred rocket launcher. The Pentagon has expressed frustration with ULA’s slower-than-expected progress, even imposing financial penalties on the company for missed deadlines. These setbacks could potentially jeopardize U.S. national security interests if ULA fails to deliver on its commitments.

ULA’s Chief Executive Officer, Tory Bruno, has acknowledged the challenges ahead but remains optimistic. “There’s inherent incentives – pressure, if you will – to ramp up and perform,” Bruno said. He expressed confidence in the company’s ability to meet its obligations, stating, “I don’t have concerns that we are understaffed to support the launch cadence.”

While ULA has declined to provide detailed information about its workforce, the company did confirm that its overall launch staff numbers around 600 across various sites. ULA employs approximately 2,700 people in total, including 1,200 rocket scientists and 100 new hires brought on board to support upcoming launches. Bruno emphasized that ULA is preparing for its ambitious launch schedule by stockpiling rockets and components in specially designed warehouses. “I’ve got over 30 solid rocket motors stacked up literally like cordwood” in one Florida warehouse, Bruno said, adding, “I’m pretty sure that might be the largest tonnage of TNT equivalent propellant that has ever been accumulated. So, you know, no matches in there.”

Despite these preparations, ULA faces the challenge of maintaining a busy launch season to keep revenue flowing into the business. Unlike its billionaire-backed rivals, ULA does not benefit from substantial cash infusions from investors. Bruno has noted that Boeing’s willingness to invest in its space division is limited due to the ongoing safety crisis in its core jet division, and Lockheed’s earnings from its stake in ULA have also declined in recent years.

In a joint statement to Bloomberg, Boeing and Lockheed asserted their commitment to meeting launch demands, highlighting their investments in rocket development and new facilities. They also emphasized the technical support and business expertise they provide to ULA. However, the lure of higher pay and the ambitious visions of space exploration offered by companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Amazon’s satellite internet project have made it difficult for ULA to retain its top talent.

While Bruno declined to provide specific figures on employee turnover, he claimed that ULA’s attrition rate remains in the single digits, which he said is “significantly below industry average.” Nevertheless, the competition between SpaceX and ULA has spilled over into the public arena, with a recent exchange on Musk’s social media platform, X. Bruno took a subtle jab at a promotional photo of SpaceX’s new Raptor v3 engine, suggesting that the engine was “partially assembled” to exaggerate its design. SpaceX’s Chief Operating Officer, Gwynne Shotwell, responded with a photo of the Raptor engine in action, shooting fire and exhaust on a test stand, captioned, “Works pretty good for a ‘partially assembled’ engine :).”

As SpaceX and Blue Origin continue to attract top engineering talent, ULA has only 12 job openings advertised, four of which are for Launch Operations engineers. “ULA has been constrained in a way that has hampered their ability to respond to the competitive challenges with SpaceX,” said George Sowers, ULA’s former chief scientist. “It’s a terrible ownership model.”

However, ULA does have one significant advantage: a 100% success record with its legacy rockets. SpaceX’s Falcon family has launched nearly 400 times, but it did experience a notable mission failure last month. Meanwhile, Blue Origin has yet to conduct a launch to orbit.

This year, ULA achieved a milestone by putting astronauts into orbit for the first time and celebrated the 100th flight of its Atlas V rocket. Now, ULA’s focus is on certifying its replacement, the Vulcan rocket, for the Department of Defense. The company is targeting a September launch, and if successful, ULA will be eligible for lucrative Pentagon “phase 3” contracts worth billions.