SpaceX Challengers ULA, Ariane Rockets Set To Take Flight: Can Musk’s Firm Retain Its Crown?

Two rockets, developed by the United Launch Alliance and Europe’s ArianeGroup, are scheduled to take to the skies on Tuesday as they set their sights on cutting the market dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

On Tuesday, ULA, a joint venture between aerospace and defense firms Lockheed Martin and Boeing, is set to launch the Vulcan Centaur rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida between 7.59 p.m. ET and 8.59 p.m. ET.

The classified mission will be the ULA’s first launch for the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program and will deliver the high-profile experimental payload — Navigation Technology Satellite-3. ULA’s Vulcan launched for the first time in January last year, but it has not taken off since October due to an issue with the rocket’s nozzle.

Separately, the Ariane 6 rocket, financed by European countries, will take off from French Guiana at 8:37 p.m. ET with an Airbus SE-made weather satellite into a polar orbit. Since its debut in July last year, this will only be its third launch.

The twin launches are amid global efforts to counter SpaceX’s dominance in launch services. Last year, SpaceX’s Falcon had over 130 successful flights, accounting for half of all orbital launches.

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits about both Lockheed and Boeing was in ‘bearish’ territory at the time of writing.

Separately, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Rocket Lab are also preparing for launches this year. This comes amid rising demand for satellite launches, with the likes of Kuiper and AST SpaceMobile building their satellite broadband networks, which could challenge SpaceX's Starlink unit.

The European Space Agency is also reportedly developing its own satellite broadband service amid the growing importance of space-based defense technology worldwide.

SpaceX is busy preparing its Starship, the largest launch vehicle ever built, which will play a crucial role in future missions to Mars and the Moon.

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