NASA launched a lunar lander from Cape Canaveral last month, but the rocket booster was not from the well-known and often-used SpaceX.
United Launch Alliance (ULA), owned by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, was formed in 2005 to make rockets. They dominated the market for almost a decade, charging NASA over $400 million per launch. NASA contracted with them in 2013 for 28 launches, but SpaceX protested, offering a price of just $90 million using their Falcon 9.
A major restructuring of ULA followed with the goal being to cut its launch pricing in half so that it could compete, but the company was still in danger of bankruptcy by 2015. They asked for $1+ billion from the US Air Force to help them develop a new rocket called the Vulcan. Today that rocket provides 22,000 jobs across the country.
Jumping over the intervening years, last month's launch was delivered by ULA's brand new rocket, the Vulcan Centaur, at a price to NASA of $108 million for its five payloads.
I still have questions about ULA. If I find answers, I'll continue this.
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