Well, now we know why he left ULA:
Welcome to Blue Origin, @torybruno. We share a deep belief in supporting our nation with the best technology we can build. Tory brings unmatched experience, and I’m confident he’ll accelerate our ability to deliver on that mission. Glad to have you with us. https://t.co/lBXOGwkKhE
— Dave Limp (@davill) December 26, 2025
“But why would Tory, who was CEO at ULA, take a new job where he’s got a boss instead of being the boss?” some will ask. But Tory did have a boss at his ULA job – two of them, in fact. It’s just that his old bosses weren’t at all interested in providing him what he would need to even try making a long-term go of ULA. His new boss at Blue, in contrast, will be requiring that of him.
Job #1? Get New Glenn certified for War Dept. launch service. Job #2, shoulder ULA aside as the War Dept.’s #2 launch contractor. Boeing and Lock-Mart are about to find out that they would have been far better off keeping Tory inside the tent pissing out than they’re going to be when he’s outside the tent pissing in.
I’m not all that certain ULA had any say in the matter.
Not about his leaving, no. About the likely reasons for his leaving, those have been piling up since he first replaced Gass more than a decade ago.
This is all part of an incremental process by which newer, entrepreneurial, enterprises replace the aged and infirm legacy space and defense contractors – a process that has shifted into a notably higher gear during the last few years.
Bruno was behind Blue moving the BE-4 engine production from Seattle to Huntsville (it was the only way ULA would buy the engine), among other things. This has a long history, and doesn’t come as a surprise.
“The
beatingspoachings will continue until morale improves.”ULA United Lost Assets. Let’s see. They have the Vulcan rocket which is demonstrably superior to… um… Ariane 5 correct? Then of course the Centaur upper stage. Which cannot possibly be replaced. Then finally the Atlas 5! THE sole launch platform for the Starliner single path to orbit (SPTO) transfer vehicle. What more could one ask of an aerospace venture?
Vulcan is the pinnacle Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle at the dawn of the Age of Reusable Rockets.
It’s a good rocket that will do its intended jobs (chiefly, precision insertion to high energy orbits for large milestone payloads) quite well. But it is an *obsolescent* rocket, because it is not terribly price competitive with the ever growing array of partially or fully reusable American medium and heavy lift launch vehicles coming online. It will provide a modest and reliable revenue stream to Boeing and Lockheed as it flies out its present (70 launch) manifest, and then that will be the end for ULA, more or less.
It was *supposed* to be partially re-usable (1st stage engines only) but that was a bit of a recovery Rube Goldberg-ism and was abandoned as I understand it.
A guy with an in at the military cohort of the Deep State is hired by a company wants to use that in? Shocking.
This may be a case of the rats escaping a sinking ship. ULA is looking to be in increasing difficulty. They didn’t even try competing for HLS when they had a long-standing concept for a hydrolox lander (XEUS). Their semi-reasonable plan for partial reusability was delayed indefinitely. SpaceX is pulling back from
Starliner. Amazon LEO have been launched on their competitor (F9). Vulcan flight rate has been lower than expected. And now they have two competitors for DOD/W launches. Not a bad time for Bruno to switch horses.
Nodding along pretty well until I got to this:
“SpaceX is pulling back from Starliner.”
One of the two ‘S’ words in that sentence is pretty obviously wrong – perhaps even both.
Did you mean Boeing is pulling back from Starliner? Or was it to be NASA is pulling back from Starliner? The first may or may not be true, but there is no public declaration to that effect of which I am currently aware. The second pretty obviously is true, what with the substitution of a cargo-only mission in place of what was to be a manned one and the trimming of the number of guaranteed missions to match Starliner’s technical delays to the ISS’s diminishing operational future.
Whichever you intended, the impact to ULA seems minor. At worst, ULA will be left with a couple or three Atlas Vs that will have to find non-Starliner payloads. Amazon Leo will buy them in a New York minute along with three extra SRBs apiece. So not a problem.
/conspiracy hat on: How long has this been in the works? As far back as when ULA adopted BO engines dooming ULA?
/conspiracy hate off: BO has positioned itself as a government contractor and Bruno is an excellent choice to navigate that world and working for an employer that is willing to engage in some creativity and take market risks might give him a chance to shine.