{"id":15048,"date":"2016-11-30T22:37:07","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T14:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/ula-unveils-rocketbuilder-website\/"},"modified":"2016-11-30T22:37:07","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T14:37:07","slug":"ula-unveils-rocketbuilder-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/ula-unveils-rocketbuilder-website\/","title":{"rendered":"ULA unveils \u2018RocketBuilder\u2019 website"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

\"A
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket sits inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral earlier this month before rollout with the GOES-R weather satellite. Credit: NASA\/Ben Smegelsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rocket-builder United Launch Alliance unveiled a first-of-a-kind website Wednesday that shows potential customers exactly what it will cost to buy an Atlas 5 booster, along with expected savings based on the rocket\u2019s demonstrated reliability, ULA\u2019s on-time launch record and the company\u2019s sophisticated guidance system.<\/p>\n

The new \u201cRocketBuilder\u201d web tool, reflecting ULA\u2019s on-going push to streamline operations and lower prices, shows that an entry-level Atlas 5, capable of boosting a small to medium-size satellite to the high orbit used by communications stations, would cost $109 million \u2014 $75 million less than the same rocket cost just a few years ago.<\/p>\n

RocketBuilder:
\nhttps:\/\/www.rocketbuilder.com\/<\/p>\n

\u201cSo $109 (million) is a pretty big change,\u201d ULA CEO Tory Bruno told reporters. \u201cAnd that is the result of an entire company transformation we\u2019ve been going through. We have entered into strategic partnerships in our supply chain and achieved vast savings there. We have streamlined our operations, taking advantage of our 10 years of experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt now takes half as long to build a rocket in our factory and only a third the amount of time to integrate that at the pad with a spacecraft and launch it. And of course, time is money.\u201d<\/p>\n

While $109 million version of an Atlas 5 costs nearly $50 million more than a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Bruno said the actual out-of-pocket cost for a customer buying the Atlas 5 is around $44 million when \u201cadded value\u201d savings are figured in by RocketBuilder.<\/p>\n

In the $109 million example, which assumes a satellite value of $300 million \u2014 typical for this variant of the Atlas \u2014 projected insurance savings based on the rocket\u2019s failure-free launch history would be $12 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out there is a cost associated with reliability, and it\u2019s manifested in the insurance rates you pay for your space launch,\u201d Bruno said. \u201cAnd depending on who you choose, the difference in that cost can be millions of dollars. It\u2019s significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruno said the industry average for delays, from the point a contract is signed to a satellite\u2019s eventual launch date two to three years later, is about 4.5 months. ULA\u2019s average is two weeks or so. RocketBuilder calculates how much revenue a given satellite operator could expect to lose based on that industry average.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you choose to go with a launch provider that has a poor record of being on time, then you\u2019re going to be exposed to costs,\u201d Bruno said. \u201cYour revenue stream that you\u2019re going to get from putting your commercial \u2026 satellite on orbit will be delayed or deferred. You might have to pay money to store and maintain your satellite while you\u2019re waiting for them. That can be millions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the $109 million example, that works out to $23 million in savings.<\/p>\n

Bruno said the sophisticated guidance system of the Atlas 5 system means ULA typically delivers satellites to ultra-precise orbits, reducing the amount of on-board fuel needed to fine-tune a spacecraft\u2019s path. On average, that can increase the satellite\u2019s life by up to two years or so, he said, adding another $30 million in savings.<\/p>\n

All together, RocketBuilder says the buyer of that $109 million Atlas 5 would save $65 million, making the actual out-of-pocket cost just $44 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re a commercial operator, it\u2019s very difficult to get clear transparency around all of these costs so you can do meaningful trades and build a real business plan,\u201d Bruno said. \u201cBut today, all that changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to provide a tool, we call it RocketBuilder, that anybody can go to and have instant, clear transparency around what the costs are. Not just the sticker price of the rocket, but all of those other costs, and what your true cost of going to space is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

From this point forward, he said, \u201cthat information will be transparent and clear. It will be easier to buy a ride to space than to get a plane ticket home for the holidays.\u201d<\/p>\n

United Launch Alliance is a partnership between Boeing, builder of the Delta family of rockets, and Lockheed Martin, which builds the Atlas 5.<\/p>\n

The more expensive Delta rockets, now used exclusively for military and other government payloads, have a record of 33 successes and no failures since the booster\u2019s debut in 2002. The Atlas 5 record is 67 straight successes over the same period.<\/p>\n

SpaceX is ULA\u2019s primary U.S. competitor, launching 28 Falcon 9s since 2010, including one in-flight failure in 2015. Another SpaceX Falcon 9 exploded on the launch pad Sept. 1 during a pre-flight test and it\u2019s not yet known when the company plans to resume flights.<\/p>\n

But SpaceX founder Elon Musk\u2019s drive to lower launch costs, the company\u2019s ongoing efforts to develop innovative reusable rocket stages, sharp criticism of ULA\u2019s use of a Russian-built engine in the Atlas 5 first stage and a successful push to win military launch contracts have shaken up the rocket industry.<\/p>\n

Bruno did not mention SpaceX during his discussion Wednesday, saying only that ULA is continuing its own efforts to lower costs and increase transparency. He said the RocketBuilder tool is a major step in that direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an incredible empowerment we are handing to a spacecraft operator to a customer to do trades, optimize between launch service and their whole business plan before they\u2019ve even picked up the phone,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is really a game changer, and it\u2019s all about providing this transparency that\u2019s heretofore not ever been available.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket sits inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral earlier this month before rollout with the GOES-R weather satellite. Credit: NASA\/Ben Smegelsky Rocket-builder United Launch Alliance unveiled a first-of-a-kind website Wednesday that shows potential customers exactly what it will cost to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[724,875,750],"class_list":["post-15048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-5","tag-tory-bruno","tag-united-launch-alliance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}