Elon Musk Calls United Launch Alliance 'Complete Waste of Taxpayer Dollars'

The CEO took to Twitter to bash SpaceX competitor ULA for not building reusable rockets.

| Aug 14, 2020 04:58 AM EST

Created: Aug 14, 2020 04:58 AM EST

Almost a week after the U.S. Air Force announced that SpaceX would launch 40 percent of the military's national security missions between 2022 and 2026 and that ULA would launch 60 percent, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to blast ULA and voice his annoyance at the Air Force's decision to award the SpaceX competitor a larger contract.

Two space CEOs, worlds apart

Overall, the contracts are very lucrative for both SpaceX and ULA, who beat out challengers Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman, as the Pentagon aims to spend about $1 billion per year on launches between 2022 and 2026.

However, Musk, who is known for his Twitter provocations, couldn't help taking to Twitter to voice his disdain:

Efficiently reusable rockets are all that matter for making life multiplanetary & “space power”. Because their rockets are not reusable, it will become obvious over time that ULA is a complete waste of taxpayer money.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2020

ULA CEO Tory Bruno took a different — some would argue classier — tact, by simply congratulating SpaceX for winning their share of the contract.

I congratulate @SpaceX on their USAF NSS Phase 2 award
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) August 13, 2020

As CNBC reports, the Air Force has already awarded the first three missions under the contract, with SpaceX getting $316 million for one mission and ULA getting $337 million for two launches, all of which are due to go ahead in 2022.

To reuse, or not to reuse

ULA, which stands for United Launch Alliance, is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. ULA and SpaceX have both launched dozens of payloads for the military.

While ULA had a virtual monopoly until 2014, SpaceX has since emerged as a great competitor, which of course, recently launched astronauts from U.S. soil for the first time in almost a decade, using reusable Falcon 9 boosters and a reusable Dragon Crew capsule.

Elon Musk Calls United Launch Alliance 'Complete Waste of Taxpayer Dollars' — Musk's SpaceX recently launched the first astronauts from U.S. soil in almost a decade, *Source*: *NASA/Joel Kowsky*

As per SpaceNews, ULA executives have said the company does intend to eventually launch reusable versions of its Vulcan rocket, though it is yet to set any kind of timeline for this goal.