Launch service provider

I'm curious to know if there's any general attitude or consensus, whether positive or negative (envy, contempt, skepticism, respect, rivalry, etc.). And has it changed over time as SpaceX has hit new milestones?

Or does it perhaps depend on the age of the engineer? Or their personal feelings toward Musk in general? Or whether their livelihood is tied to preserving the status quo with respect to government contracts, etc.?

My question is motivated by a conflicting set of assumptions that I'm curious to reconcile. On one hand, presumably most people who go into aerospace engineering are personally excited by space exploration, and presumably many have been disappointed by the lack of progress after the Apollo era. In this light, SpaceX's success with reusable rockets, and their plans for low-cost heavy launch systems and Mars colonization should be, at a minimum, very exciting. And beyond that, perhaps light a fire for engineers to want to quit their current employment and seek jobs at SpaceX or other space startups.

On the other hand, based on my own experience with several such firms (circa 2000), I've never met a group of more risk-averse, change-phobic, stodgy, ossified-thinking, "it can't be done" people in any industry, ever (including automotive and pre-breakup Ma Bell telecom, so that's saying something). Presumably there was a long history of incentive structures to engrain and reinforce such a culture, but I'm speculating. And the famous negative responses of Apollo astronauts to Musk's plans makes me wonder if their attitudes are representative of generational institutional biases.

I am the President and CEO of United Launch Alliance, America’s #1 space launch provider. I’ve been a rocket scientist for 30 years, and am excited for your questions. I'll start answering questions at 7:00pm ET. I am looking forward to getting to know the space community here on reddit.

Update 8:15pm: It’s time for me to sign off for tonight. This was a lot of fun – I really enjoyed your questions. This group obviously knows their stuff about space launch and rocketry! I will probably check in later this week to answer a few more questions. I look forward to my second AMA, which I’ll do after we unveil our new rocket at the National Space Symposium next month.

My Proof:

-- alternative link on

. Credit: Tory Bruno

United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno reached out to me a few months back with an idea to use my photo as a giant mural in their lobby. We worked out the details, and now the image is on display..... very large..... in their lobby.

I work as a rocket launch photojournalist and have access to the launchpads to set up cameras prior to some of the launches at Cape Canaveral. Even with this in mind, this image was taken with a Nikon D3300. I know my access to the launchpad is a major factor here, but even with moderate gear, a balanced exposure, and proper focusing, anyone can create great images.

A buddy of mine enlarged the image using a program called Resize 10 and I enlarged it even further in Photoshop. The final file was something like 4.5GB.

Anyway, this is big for me and I'm pumped. Also wanted to distract myself from the incoming hurricane by typing this up. Cheers, all!