Leaves SpaceX As Sole Bidder For The Business

It would appear the United Launch Alliance's monopoly on satellite launches for the U.S. Air Force has been broken ... and that the legacy launch company will not even bid on the next contract.

The Washington Post reports that ULA said Monday that it would withdraw from the competition for the next launch contract. That leaves only SpaceX as certified to launch spacecraft for the U.S. Government.

ULA Chief Executive Tory Bruno told the Washington Post in a phone interview that the Lockheed Martin - Boeing joint venture is "unable to submit a compliant proposals" because of certain contract limitations.

That mostly revolves around Congress' desire to phase out use of the RD-180 engines built in Russia for national security launches by 2019. ULA relies heavily on the RD-180 engine for its launches. ULA had been authorized to use four of the engines under this year's defense appropriations bill, but as the bill remains unsigned, the RD-180 engines are currently unavailable.

But Bruno told the paper that even if they had access to additional engines, the contract was structured in such a way that ULA would be unable to compete.

SpaceX has had no comment.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.spacex.com, www.ula.com