ULA CEO Pitches Vulcan Centaur Rocket For US Space Force Satellite Defense Role

United Launch Alliance (ULA) has proposed a new military application for its Vulcan Centaur rocket. It says the rocket can be used as a “space interceptor” able to thwart threats to US assets in orbit. The Vulcan Centaur rocket is a heavy launch vehicle that competes with SpaceX’s Falcon 9. While it is still expensive (around $110 million per launch), it is around half the price of the Atlas V predecessor and its expensive Blue Origin BE-4 engines are designed to be reusable. To compete with SpaceX, ULA has been searching for more applications where the upper stage could be reused for multiple missions while in space, including they “might tug satellites or counter Chinese threats.”