United Launch Alliance unveils website that lets you price out a rocket ‘like building a car’

This morning, United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno unveiled a new website that allows satellite makers to figure out what it will really cost to launch a vehicle on one of ULA’s rockets. It’s like going to “Ford or Chevy and building your car,” Bruno said, except in the end you wind up with a more than $100 million rocket that can take cargo to space. And just like checking out on Amazon, the website allows you to save your rocket and submit it to ULA to start the process of finalizing a launch contract.

The site, called RocketBuilder.com, looks to be ULA’s attempt to further infiltrate the commercial satellite market, after launching mostly government satellites and NASA missions for the past decade. Bruno says the site is meant to provide an “unprecedented level of transparency” to commercial customers about the true cost of launching a satellite with ULA. “The sticker price on the rocket is just the tip of the iceberg,” Bruno said at a press conference this morning in Washington, DC. “There is a whole host of other costs.” The site is supposed to give potential customers an idea of what those costs might be.

“The sticker price on the rocket is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Rocket Builder allows you to pick when you want to launch and what orbit you want your satellite to go to. And then, depending on its destination and how big the satellite is, the site will help you calculate the size of your payload fairing — the nose cone that encases the satellite on the top of the rocket — as well as how many additional boosters you’re going to need for thrust. Customers even have the option of picking customizable “service options,” which include adding an onboard video system to the rocket, or conducting “expanded mission rehearsals.” There’s even the option of purchasing a VIP experience, where you can invite 100 customers or investors to come watch the launch as a marketing tool.

So if I wanted to send a hypothetical 5,000-pound satellite into geostationary transfer orbit, I’m going to need ULA’s simplest Atlas V rocket (no extra boosters required). In this scenario, I also splurged for the “Signature” service option, which includes perks like shock testing, so my total cost comes out to $119 million.

The site also calculates the “ULA added value,” which is determined by ULA’s reliability, schedule certainty, and orbit optimization, according to the company. After 113 successful launches with no failures, ULA claims its rockets are more reliable than other US vehicles on the market, and that it can even take satellites to a better orbit than expected, helping to extend a spacecraft’s mission. By clicking on “Customize” next to “ULA Added Value,” the site breaks down how much customers are saving if they stick with ULA. That value is supposedly calculated by reduced insurance rates, the amount of revenue satellite operators make by launching on time, and the extended lifetime of a satellite.