When Tory Bruno took the reins of United Launch Alliance in 2014, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture faced threats on several fronts that put the launch provider's future existence in doubt. SpaceX was challenging its near- monopoly in the national security launch market, the U.S. Air Force and Congress were up in arms over high launch prices, and deteriorating U.S.-Russian relations meant ULA needed to figure out an alternative to relying on Russian RD-180 engines to launch some of the nation's most sensitive satellites.
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