United Launch Alliance chief Tory Bruno resigns

SANTA FE, N.M. — Tory Bruno, the longtime chief executive of United Launch Alliance, is leaving the joint venture for another opportunity.

In a Dec. 23 statement, executives from Boeing and Lockheed Martin, who own an equal stake in ULA, said that Bruno was stepping down after 12 years for another, unnamed opportunity.

“We are grateful for Tory’s service to ULA and the country, and we thank him for his leadership,” said Robert Lightfoot of Lockheed Martin and Kay Sears of Boeing in the statement. The announcement provided no other details about Bruno’s resignation.

“Thank you for the opportunity to lead this amazing team. They have put ULA in a great position to do important things for our customers and Nation,” Bruno said in a social media post.

The announcement was a surprise move, with no indication that Bruno was leaving the company. Earlier in the day, ULA released the latest episode of “The Burn Sequence,” a podcast where Bruno interviews industry officials. This was a whimsical holiday episode, and Bruno didn’t hint at a departure during it.

ULA hired Bruno as CEO in 2014, succeeding Michael Gass, who had led the joint venture since it was established in 2006. Bruno had been president of Lockheed Martin Strategic and Missile Defense Systems, and had worked on space and missile programs for 30 years.

Bruno joined ULA as the company’s effective monopoly on national security launches was being challenged by SpaceX, which had sued the U.S. Air Force to win the right to compete for those contracts.

At the same time, ULA was facing threats to its workhorse vehicle, the Atlas 5, which uses the Russian RD-180 engine. Congress was considering blocking future sales of the engine and the Russian government was threatening to cut off access in response to Western sanctions for Russia’s annexation of Crimea and occupation of parts of eastern Ukraine.

A month after becoming CEO, Bruno announced a deal with Blue Origin to use that company’s BE-4 engine for a new ULA rocket that would ultimately replace both the Atlas 5 and Delta 4. That vehicle, which ULA later named Vulcan, made its first flight in January 2024.

Much of Bruno’s tenure was devoted to managing that transition at the company phased out the Atlas and Delta and introduced Vulcan. That took place against a backdrop of a dramatically shifting launch industry, as SpaceX evolved from an upstart to a behemoth that this year alone has performed 165 launches. ULA, by contrast, performed six launches, five of the Atlas 5 and one of Vulcan.

ULA had forecast nine launches this year when Bruno talked with reporters in August, a number that itself was a sharp decrease from a projection of 20 launches that the company made last year.

Bruno, though, remained optimistic about ramping up the Vulcan launch rate, projecting 20 to 25 launches in 2026 to meet commercial and government demand. “We are in that good problem to have of having more customers wanting to ride on this rocket than is easy to accommodate,” he said then.

ULA said that John Elbon will serve as interim chief executive with Bruno’s resignation. The company announced Dec. 8 that Elbon, who has been the chief operating officer, would retire from the company after eight years. Mark Peller, who had been senior vice president for Vulcan and advanced programs, was tapped to succeed Elbon as COO.

“We have the greatest confidence in John to continue strengthening ULA’s momentum while the board proceeds with finding the next leader of ULA,” Lightfoot and Sears said in the statement announcing Bruno’s resignation. “Together with Mark Peller, the new COO, John’s career in aerospace and his launch expertise is an asset for ULA and its customers, especially for achieving key upcoming Vulcan milestones.”