ائتلاف الإطلاق المتحد

(تم التحويل من United Launch Alliance)
ائتلاف الإطلاق المتحد
الاسم المحلي
United Launch Alliance
النوعخاصة
الصناعةالطيران الفضائي
تأسست1 ديسمبر 2006; منذ 18 سنة (2006-12-01
المقر الرئيسيسنتنيال، كولورادو، الولايات المتحدة
الأشخاص الرئيسيون
توري برونو (الرئيس التنفيذي)
المنتجات
الدخلUS$1٫3 billion (2022)[1]
US$200 million (2022)[1]
المالكLockheed Martin Space (50%)
Boeing Defense, Space & Security (50%)
الموظفون2,700 (2024)
الموقع الإلكترونيulalaunch.com

ائتلاف الإطلاق المتحد (United Launch Alliance، اختصاراً ULA)، هي مزود خدمات إطلاق للمركبات الفضائية، تُصنع وتُشغل عدداً من المركبات الصاروخية القادرة على إطلاق المركبات الفضائية إلى المدارات حول الأرض وإلى أجرام أخرى في النظام الشمسي. تأسست الشركة، وهي شركة محاصة بين لوكهيد مارتن سپيس وبوينگ للدفاع والفضاء والأمن، في ديسمبر 2006. تشمل قائمة عملاء الإطلاق للحكومة الأمريكية وزارة الدفاع، الإدارة الوطنية للملاحة الفضائية والفضاء (ناسا)، ومنظمات أخرى.[2]

تقدم الشركة خدمات الإطلاق باستخدام نظامي اطلاق متعددي المراحل دلتا 4 الثقيل وأطلس 5، حتى عام 2018، نظام الإطلاق متوسطة الحمولة دلتا 2. أطلقت أنظمة الإطلاق أطلس، ودلتا 4 الثقيل، ودلتا 4 التي أُحيلت إلى التقاعد مؤخراً حمولات تشمل سواتل صناعية للطقس، والاتصالات، والأمن القومي، ومسبارات علمية، ومركبات مدارية. كما تطلق الشركة سواتل تجارية.[3]

اعتباراً من عام 2020، تعمل الشركة على تطوير الصاروخ ڤولكان سنتور، وهو خليفة للصاروخ أطلس 5 الذي يتضمن بعض تقنيات دلتا 4.[4][5] اعتباراً من عام 2019، كان من المقرر أن تبدأ عمليات إطلاق ڤولكان في 2021.[6] من المقرر أن تحل المرحلة المتقدمة للتبريد العميق (ACES) محل سنتور 5 على الصاروخ ڤولكان اعتباراً من عام 2023.[7][8]

تاريخ الشركة

التشكيل وموافقة مفوضية التجارة الفدرالية

Boeing and Lockheed Martin announced on 2 May 2005 that they would establish a 50/50 joint venture, United Launch Alliance (ULA), to consolidate their space launch operations.[9]

The two companies had long competed for launch services contracts from the DoD, and their Atlas and Delta rockets were the two launch vehicles selected under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. The DoD had hoped the program would foster the creation of a strong, competitive commercial launch market. However, both companies said that this competition had made space launches unprofitable.[10] Boeing's future in the program was also threatened in 2003 when it was found to be in possession of proprietary documents from Lockheed Martin.[11][12] To end litigation and competition, both companies agreed to form the ULA joint venture. During the renewal of the EELV contract, the DoD said the merger would provide annual cost savings of $100–150 million.[13]

SpaceX attempted to challenge the merger on anti-trust grounds, saying it would create a space launch monopoly.[14] The Federal Trade Commission ultimately granted ULA anti-trust clearance, prioritizing national security access to space over potential competition concerns.[15][16]

عهد مايكل گاس (2005–2014)

Michael Gass was announced as the first CEO of ULA and oversaw the merger of the two groups. Production was consolidated into one central plant in Decatur, Alabama while all engineering was moved into a facility in Littleton, Colorado.[17] The parent companies retained responsibility for marketing and sales of the Delta and Atlas rockets.

Cost pressures led ULA to announce it would lay off 350 of its 4,200 workers in early 2009,[18][19] and decommissioned two of its seven launch pads.[13][20] ULA also joined and later left the Commercial Spaceflight Federation during this period.[21][22]

The introduction of lower-cost competition and rising ULA launch costs attracted scrutiny. ULA's reliance on government funding for launch readiness, including maintaining multiple launchpads and rocket variants, became a point of discussion, particularly as the EELV program experienced a cost breach in 2012.[11]

ULA was awarded a DoD contract in December 2013 to provide 36 rocket cores for up to 28 launches. The award drew protest from SpaceX, which said the cost of ULA's launches were approximately US$460 million each and proposed a price of US$90 million to provide similar launches.[23] In response, Gass said ULA's average launch price was US$225 million, with future launches as low as US$100 million.[24]

عهد توري برونو (2014 فصاعداً)

ULA CEO Tory Bruno at a NASA news conference in December 2019

In a leadership change at ULA in August 2014, Tory Bruno assumed the CEO position, marking a new strategic direction for the company.[25] Under Bruno's leadership, ULA was under pressure to reduce costs to better compete with SpaceX and its partially reusable rockets, replace its Russian-made RD-180 with more efficient western-made engines,[26] and introduce a next-generation launch vehicle. The company's high cost to launch left the company with few commercial and civil satellite launch customers, and increasingly reliant on U.S. military and spy agency contracts.[27][28] After the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, Congress passed a law in 2016 that prohibited the military from procuring additional launch services on vehicles that use the RD-180 engine after 2022.[29]

To reduce costs, ULA undertook a significant restructuring to streamlining operations by eventually consolidating from five launchpads to two,[30] and reducing its workforce from 3,600 to 2,500 by 2018.[28][31][32] To develop a new engine, ULA announced it would be partnering with Blue Origin to develop the BE-4.[33] The company also announced the Vulcan, a next-generation launch vehicle, to be funded through a public-private partnership. Bruno believed the Vulcan would offer costs that would make it competitive in the commercial satellite sector.[28]

However, despite these cost-cutting measures, ULA launches continued to be more expensive than those offered by SpaceX.[28] The company's joint bid with Dynetics to develop a lunar lander for NASA was rejected in 2021 with the agency calling the companies bid "low in readiness."[34]

The Delta family of rockets was retired in early 2024, having been replaced in the market by the SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, which was more powerful, less expensive, and faster to build, leading ULA to lose all commercial contracts.[10] ULA planned an orderly retirement and had procured and had in hand 100 of the engines to continue building Atlas V as it developed a replacement rocket. At the time of the announcement they could fly 29 more missions and all of them had been sold, so no new orders would be accepted.

ULA faces an uncertain future. In 2023, the company announced that it was for sale.[35] In December 2023, it was announced that Jeff Bezos was looking at purchasing the company to merge it with Blue Origin, which he also owns.[35][36][37]

تاريخ الإطلاق

المقالة الرئيسية: أطلس 5 § الإطلاقات, دلتا 4 § الإطلاقات, and دلتا 2 § الإطلاقات
5
10
15
20
2006
'07
'08
'09
'10
'11
'12
'13
'14
'15
'16
'17
'18
'19
'20
'21
'22
  •   Success
  •   Partial Failure
  •   Scheduled


2015–2019

Launch of InSight
Parker Solar Probe Launch


2020

Solar Orbiter launch closeup


البنية التحتية

منشآت الإطلاق

ULA's Horizontal Integration Facility at CCSFS in February 2018

اعتبارا من يونيو 2024, ULA operates two launch facilities: Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida[38][39] and Space Launch Complex 3 at the Vandenberg Space Force Base near Lompoc, California.[40][41] The Cape Canaveral facility is equipped with a crew access arm for loading manned vehicles. Launches from Cape Canaveral typically head east to give satellites extra momentum from the rotation of the Earth as they head to other planets or into an equatorial orbit. Vandenberg is the primary U.S. launch site from which imaging and weather satellites are sent into polar orbits to cover the entire globe.[42]

Since its foundation in 2006, ULA has significantly reduced its number of launch facilities from seven to the current two. At Cape Canaveral it previously operated two pads at Space Launch Complex 17 and one pad at Space Launch Complex 37 for Delta launches.[43][44] At Vandenburg, it previously operated one pad at Space Launch Complex 2[45] and another at Space Launch Complex 6 for Delta launches.[46][47]

المقر الرئيسي والتصنيع

ULA's headquarters building in Centennial, Colorado

ULA's headquarters in Centennial, Colorado is responsible for program management, rocket engineering, testing, and launch support functions.[48] ULA's largest factory is 1.6 million square feet (150,000 m2) and located in Decatur, Alabama.[49] In 2015, the company announced the opening of an engineering and propulsion test center in Pueblo, Colorado.[50]

Until 2024, the company previously operated a factory in Harlingen, Texas to fabricate and assemble components for the Atlas V rocket.[51]

مركز عمليات الإعداد لارتياد الفضاء

The Spaceflight Processing Operations Center (SPOC), located near Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41 is used to construct the mobile launcher platform (MLP) for the Vulcan Centaur. It also serves as a storage area for the Atlas V MLP.[52] On 6 August 2019, the first two parts of Vulcan's MLP were transported to the SPOC.[53] SPOC was formerly known as the Solid Motor Assembly and Readiness Facility (SMARF) during its support of the Titan IVB launch vehicle; it was renamed during a ceremony in October 2019.[52]

انظر أيضاً

منتجات سابقة
مزودو خدمات الإطلاق

ملاحظات

المصادر

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  43. ^ خطأ استشهاد: وسم <ref> غير صحيح؛ لا نص تم توفيره للمراجع المسماة WGS9
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  52. ^ أ ب "Construction milestone achieved for Vulcan's launch platform". United Launch Alliance. October 24, 2019. Retrieved 2020-03-28.
  53. ^ @ToryBruno (6 August 2019). "Mighty Atlas is not the only thing rolling at the Cape today. Check the new Vulcan MLP arrival" (Tweet) – via Twitter. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)


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