We have ignition and liftoff of the first United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket,

launching a new era in spaceflight to the moon and beyond.

United Launch Alliance blasted into 2024.

Literally, the company, also known as ULA,

launched its long-awaited powerful new Vulcan Centaur rocket

on its maiden flight January 8th, the first of two successful demo missions conducted this year.

Those are the two required flights. We turn in all of our data.

The government has been with us for the last seven years,

but then they do a final assessment of everything and what's called an IV&V, an independent

verification and validation, and then they'll certify us anytime now.

ULA has a long history of launching national security missions, and with Walkin is moving more

into the commercial market as well,

thanks to contracts with Amazon and others. But Tori Bruno, CEO of the Lockheed Martin Boeing

joint venture, says geopolitical threats on Earth mean critical infrastructure in space needs more

protection. Space is essentially an undefended domain, So we are going to have to contend with that.

Policy has been all around resiliency, which is to say having a space architecture that can take

a few attacks and keep operating, that's essential because we don't think really any longer

that a terrestrial conflict could extend into space.

I think we now know that a terrestrial conflict starts in space first.

So those assets will be attacked.

What we need to add to the portfolio now is the ability to fight back and defend ourselves.

It's one thing to be able to take a punch and keep fighting,

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