When Boeing and Lockheed Martin jointly announced the formation of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) 19 months ago, they noted that they believed that the deal would close by the end of the year. They were right—so long as they’re not specific about what year. Today the ULA deal finally closed, as the joint venture started operations (they’re so official now they have their own web site). Now that the ULA is a fait accompli, let’s see how well it lives up to original expectations about saving the government over $100 million, and how it affects competition in the launch market, particularly as SpaceX develops the EELV-class Falcon 9.
