Tory Bruno resigns as head of United Launch Alliance

WASHINGTON — Tory Bruno, the longstanding president and CEO of the United Launch Alliance, has resigned his position to “pursue another opportunity,” the organization announced today.

“Effective immediately, John Elbon is named as the Interim CEO,” Robert Lightfoot, ULA Lockheed Martin Board Chair, and Kay Sears, ULA Boeing Board Chair, said in a statement today.

“We have the greatest confidence in John to continue strengthening ULA’s momentum while the board proceeds with finding the next leader of ULA. Together with Mark Peller, the new COO, John’s career in aerospace and his launch expertise is an asset for ULA and its customers, especially for achieving key upcoming Vulcan milestones,” the statement continued.

Bruno has led ULA since August 2014, coming in at a time when ULA lost its monopoly on military space launch to SpaceX. Under Bruno, ULA — a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing — focused on developing its Vulcan rocket, but also saw SpaceX move from upstart to frontrunner for putting military satellites into orbit. ULA has also reportedly been up for sale for several years, but has not found a taker.

In a message on X, Bruno responded to posts about the news from Boeing and Lockheed by saying, “It has been a great privilege to ULA through its transformation and to bring Vulcan into service. My work here is now complete and I will be cheering ULA on.”

Aaron Mehta contributed to this report.