United Launch Alliance Wins NASA Contract

(MoneyWatch)  NASA awarded the joint venture between Lockheed and Boeing, United Launch Alliance (ULA), a contract to support four launches. Bizjournals.com has the press release. The contract is worth about $600 million and will provide for the launch of four separate missions. Two of the missions are for scientific research and two will launch satellites supporting NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite service. The two companies make the primary launch vehicles used by NASA and the Air Force other then the space shuttle. All these missions will be from Cape Canaveral on Atlas V rockets. In the past the two companies competed to launch these types of missions but due to the number of flights planned it became economical to form ULA with both companies participating.