United Launch Alliance tapped to provide replacement Artemis stages after revamp

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Mar 10, 2026

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NASA moved quickly to tap United Launch Alliance to help fill in the blank space the agency created when it decided to alter its Artemis program’s future launches.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman had announced Feb. 27 that instead of developing a larger version of the Space Launch System rocket, which would been called the Block 1B for the fourth and fifth flights of the agency’s moon program, it was opting to stick with what he called “essentially a near block one configuration.”

That means that while it would no longer support the Exploration Upper Stage that was being manufactured by Boeing, “due to eroding cost and schedule delays NASA now requires an alternate upper stage,” the agency stated.

Instead, the agency posted a task order Friday stating that it planned to award ULA a contract to supply versions of its Centaur V upper stage, which is also used on that company’s new Vulcan rockets.

The Centaur V is similar to the upper stage being used on Artemis I, III and III. That stage is called the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, which was also provided by ULA. The company cannot produce more, however, as the ICPS was related to the now-retired Delta IV rocket.

NASA, though, cited ULA as the best chance to develop its Centaur V in time for Artemis IV and V’s 2028 launch target date.

For ULA’s part, the company had posted it “looks forward to continuing supporting NASA and our country’s goal to reestablish human presence on the moon” on its social media accounts following Isaacman’s announcement of Artemis’ program changes.

Along with the task order, which is to be officially awarded later this year, NASA posted a justification to not compete the contract, citing the sped-up timelines needed for the program, which was facing delays of more than three years between missions.

“Award to any source other than ULA would result in a substantial duplication of cost to the government that is not expected to be recovered through competition and would result in unacceptable schedule delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements,” the justification reads.

While Artemis II, which could fly as soon as April, is a lunar fly-by mission, NASA shifted plans to make Artemis III fly as soon as mid-2027 on a near-Earth mission to test out docking with lunar landers being created by SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Aiming for as quick as 10-month turnaround between missions, Artemis IV would then come as soon as early 2028, looking to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. Artemis V could also fly as soon as late 2028.

The task order seeks delivery of the Centaur V upper stages at least nine months before launch, meaning the first would need to be in hand a little more than a year from now and the second by around the end of 2027. The contract also calls from ULA to provide a third spare Centaur V.

For ULA, the news is a bit of a boon for what has been a problematic year so far with its normal launch business. The company has managed just one launch this year, and the fourth ever of its Vulcan rocket, but suffered another burned-off piece of one of its boosters on launch.

The good news is that the Vulcan was able to compensate for the booster and make it to space. And the Centaur V on the mission performed just as the three previous Vulcan launches, getting its payloads to the proper destination without any issue.

The new task order’s value was not published, but the company received $954.4 million for the hardware it provided for the first three missions, according to a 2022 audit from NASA’s Office of the Inspector General.

Boeing isn’t out of the money with the new direction, though, as it still supplies the SLS core stage and will need to focus on getting those delivered in time as well.

In addition, Boeing remains a 50% stakeholder with Lockheed Martin in ULA, which was created in 2006 out of those two companies’ Atlas and Delta rocket programs.

The big difference between the EUS and the Centaur V is the number of engines. EUS was to use four RL-10 engines, provided by L3Harris. The Centaur V has only two. The ICPS for Artemis I, II and III, use only one RL-10.

L3Harris had already delivered the RL-10s for the EUS, but Kristin Houston, the company’s president of its space propulsion & power systems program, said the change is welcome, and with an active RL-10 production line based in West Palm Beach, the company will have no problem meeting NASA’s needs.

“We are just really excited to see the new plan, the new Artemis overall architecture plan, especially the accelerated cadence,” she said. “Getting launched at least once a year on a routine basis is going to help us get to the moon faster.”

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