Tory Bruno, the former chief executive officer and president of United Launch Alliance, will assume the position of president of the new national security group at Blue Origin, a space venture founded by Jeff Bezos that is one of ULA’s major suppliers and rivals.
The company made this announcement in a post on .
As the head of the group, Bruno will oversee “the development of cutting-edge products, services, and technologies aimed at enhancing national security missions,” as per an internal email from Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp, which was seen by Bloomberg.
“We hold a strong belief in using the best technology we can create to support our nation,” Limp stated in a . “Tory brings unparalleled experience, and I am confident he will speed up our ability to accomplish that mission.”
The hiring of Bruno and the establishment of the new team suggest that Blue Origin is placing more emphasis on the national security applications of its various rockets and space projects. Both ULA and Blue Origin are part of an elite group of rocket launch providers, including , that are authorized to launch the most sensitive national security satellites for the US military.
Bruno’s departure from ULA, a joint rocket venture between Co. and Corp., was . He served in that role for nearly 12 years.
During his tenure leading ULA, Bruno supervised the retirement and phasing out of the company’s older Delta and Atlas rockets, while leading the development of a new rocket called Vulcan. However, the new rocket encountered numerous delays and has had trouble increasing its launch frequency since its debut in .
Blue Origin [is involved] with Vulcan, and also competes with ULA with its own New Glenn orbital rocket. While at ULA, Bruno led a collaborative partnership with Blue Origin in 2014 to develop the company’s BE-4 engines for use in the Vulcan rocket.
New Glenn, which will eventually be used for national security missions, [conducted a flight] in November. During that flight, the rocket’s main booster successfully landed on a floating barge in the ocean after takeoff.
According to Limp’s internal memo, Blue Origin is also transitioning its in-space systems business unit into the new national security group. The current head of that unit, , will now report to Bruno.
The in-space systems group includes projects like Blue Ring, which aims to develop a versatile satellite that can carry out a wide variety of tasks in space, and the company’s efforts to build a new communication spacecraft that could orbit Mars.