Tory Bruno was CEO of United Launch Alliance when I first started blogging 80% or more on space, and became the only name I knew of for a CEO at ULA. He left ULA for Blue Origin last December. At Blue, instead of moving into the CEO role, he is now the president of national security. I have to assume he has knowledge of the people he needs to know and the procedures Blue needs to follow to climb higher into the national security world. ULA has been there, Blue Origin hasn't.
This Monday, Aug. 17, ULA announced they had promoted Chief Operating Officer Mark Peller to president and CEO, finally naming a successor to that position since Bruno left.
Peller joined ULA at the company’s formation in 2006 and most recently led development of the Vulcan rocket, which successfully debuted in 2024 but has been grounded since early this year by a problem with its solid rocket boosters.
Peller will have his work cut out for him. ULA had been the Pentagon's preferred launch contractor, but lost that position to SpaceX in '25. ULA has some serious catching up to do.
That was before ULA grounded the Vulcan rocket following an anomaly with one of its strap-on solid-fueled boosters on a launch in February. The rocket overcame the malfunction and still delivered its payload to orbit, but it was the second time such an anomaly has occurred in the last three Vulcan missions. It’s not clear whether ULA will be able to resume Vulcan launches before the end of the year as engineers redesign parts of the booster’s nozzle structure. In the meantime, Boeing and Lockheed Martin last month confirmed they guaranteed a loan to ULA to help it through “financial challenges” caused by the grounding.
ULA President and CEO Mark Peller. Image credit: United Launch Alliance
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