The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) tapped the leader of Alabama’s rocket builder for a prestigious fellowship.
AIAA selected United Launch Alliance (ULA) President and CEO Tory Bruno as part of its Class of 2020 Fellows and Honorary Fellows, according to a release from the organization.
Bruno and his peers will be honored at a ceremony in May.
“The 2020 Class of AIAA Honorary Fellows and Fellows have earned the respect and gratitude of the aerospace community for their dedication, creativity and contribution to better understanding our world in terms of its limits and how we can push past those boundaries,” said John Langford, AIAA president. “They are the best minds in the industry. I congratulate them on this career accomplishment.”
Congratulations, @torybruno ! A well deserved honor. https://t.co/oJ2jcIMbXL
— Eileen Drake (@DrakeEileen) February 4, 2020
Since taking the helm at ULA in 2014, Bruno has overseen the company’s increased role in the national security space race and critical scientific missions.
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ULA’s 1.6 million square foot manufacturing plant in Decatur is the largest such facility in the Western Hemisphere.
The company has calculated its annual economic impact to the state of Alabama at approximately $285 million.
In an exclusive interview with Yellowhammer News last year, Bruno spoke about the reasons why ULA’s economic impact on the state would continue to increase.
That is because of the Air Force’s award to ULA to develop the cutting-edge Vulcan rocket needed for American national security space missions.
The award, under the Launch Services Agreement, elevates the importance of ULA’s Alabama operation.
“It’s a big shot in the arm, an increase in our confidence to know that we’re developing the right rocket that the national security community and the Air Force want to carry out the mission,” said Bruno. “They tell us that unambiguously when they make the award to us. And so we have plowed ahead. We have invested heavily in the Decatur factory bringing it all up to state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques.”
Rockets built in Decatur have also powered critical weather satellites and spacecraft exploring the solar system.
Bruno’s company will power NASA’s next scientific mission to the sun early next week.
The Solar Orbiter will launch atop an Atlas V rocket as it seeks to examine how the Sun creates and controls the space environment throughout the solar system.
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The spacecraft will then reside in an elliptical orbit and make a close approach of the sun every six months, going within 26 million miles of the star’s surface. Solar Orbiter will spend the next decade gathering information.
Launch is scheduled for a two-hour window beginning at 11:03 EST on February 9 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Tim Howe is an owner of Yellowhammer Multimedia
