ULA to close rocket-building facility at Valley International Airport
Feb. 6—HARLINGEN — The city's manufacturing link with space, United Launch Alliance, is shutting down its operation here as the company transitions away from its Atlas V rocket to the new Vulcan Centaur.
The Harlingen facility's specialty is the Atlas launch vehicle, one of the most dependable rockets since its inception in 2002.
But it is being replaced by the Vulcan and work on that launch vehicle is being performed at other facilities.
About 100 workers in Harlingen will be affected.
The closing of the Harlingen ULA facility, which will be completed by the end of the year, is no surprise.
Officials with UAW Local 2346 have said they were informed multiple times by ULA executives that the Harlingen facility would not be assigned work involving the new Vulcan rocket.
The ULA facility is one of the cornerstones of Valley International Airport's attempt to diversify airport operations by adding businesses that complement VIA's mission.
"Definitely not unexpected," Marv Esterly, director of aviation at VIA, said Monday. "It's sad to see the United Launch Alliance depart, but we understood with the Vulcan rocket being manufactured in Decatur (Alabama) and the Atlas V gone away, that's just part of the process."
Esterly said VIA is working closely with the Harlingen Economic Development Corp. to put together a package to present to prospective companies to lease the facility.
He said they already have one potential firm which is interested but said it wasn't SpaceX.
"The hanger is a fabulous hanger for heavy maintenance, for larger aircraft and narrow-body jets," Esterly said. "We're looking at those types of companies."
"We had one which recently toured the facility, and they were really, how to say it, the reality exceeded their expectations," he added. "But it's got to be the right fit for both us and the company, so we're going to continue talks as we move forward."
ULA has been buffeted by the rapid competitiveness of the space launch industry, with Elon Musk's now-dominant SpaceX undercutting what ULA charges for launches.
Company executives have conceded they can't match SpaceX's launch costs, but they say the new Vulcan rocket will be much more competitive, price-wise.
United Launch Alliance has been in Harlingen since its inception in December 2006, when Lockheed Martin Corp. and The Boeing Co. established the joint venture.
The company employs a total of about 3,000 people nationwide at seven sites, with another office in Washington D.C.
The news of ULA facility's closure in Harlingen comes just two weeks after the final pieces of the first Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle were delivered by barge to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a 2,000-mile trip from Alabama.
The inaugural Vulcan launch will occur sometime in the first six months of this year.
