[cubefox]

I don't see how this would be beneficial for Blue Origin. Their next rocket, New Glenn, is planned to be finished this year. Unlike ULA's smaller Vulcan rocket, its lower stage will be reusable. It seems likely that New Glenn will be cheaper than Vulcan once they are able reuse the stage a couple of times. Especially per ton of launch mass. Then they have no reason to keep operating Vulcan.

[panick21_]

It will benefit Blue Origin because ULA actually has costumers (mostly the military). They also have launch facilities and people who know how to launch something.

New Glenn will take years to ramp up to any real launch rate.

Blue Origin will go from kind of a joke to being a big military contractor. Making New Glenn essentially a favorite for the next big military procurement cycle.

They are basically buying their way into being a big military contractor.

[cubefox]

What strange logic of some company "having" customers instead of the customers choosing the best product, which includes price.

[panick21_]

ULA was selected for large contract by the Dod. This contract amounts to 30+ launches and will take years to complete.

Rocket launches are booked years in advanced. ULA also has many launch contracts 30+ from Amazon. This will again take many years to complete.

So that's why they 'have' costumers, because the selection process has already happened. When you buy ULA you are effectively buying their years long launch backlog.

In addition its really hard to become a Airforce costumer, and once you get there, its very hard to fall out of that group. So even while the next big batch of launches has not yet been selected for by the SpaceForce, its a virtual certainty that ULA will receive a large part of that contract.