r/ula

Was thinking about this today, after ISS, what readily available medium-Heavy lift launchers will there be for these commercial space station ideas?

Falcons faring size seems limited for this role and they want to retire it, and starship would need to be in service let alone a payload door version.

New Glenn perhaps but it needs to prove its payload capacity and reliability.

So perhaps Vulcan will have a niche for launching single module or multiple space station modules for commercial organisations?

I know they’re still contracted with Starliner, but with how well that’s going, I wonder what chances we’ll see it fly again, certainly not in its 551 or any such form! Rest in peace to a workhorse. Here hoping Vulcan can carry the legacy.

Just wanted to put it out there cause I haven’t see much discussion, and while I know the major issues such as rectifying the SRBs and ensure no issues with BE 4, I do wonder that the longer it takes the less life Vulcan will have.

So are they reconsidering how long they will keep flying Vulcan or how long ULA will survive at all? As it stands the only customers it seems to have left are LEO and National security and once new Glenn gets actually going it’ll be taking a lot of that LEO work.

So what’s the future for Vulcan and ULA, will they be able to fill a niche other rockets can or is a race to the bottom?