From NASDAQ:

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is preparing to launch their new Vulcan rocket at Cape Canaveral, a crucial mission worth hundreds of millions of dollars. ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, hopes the successful launch will establish a competitive position against Elon Musk’s SpaceX and potentially facilitate a sale of ULA. The first mission will also serve as a certification flight for the U.S. Space Force.
SpaceX’s cheaper flights have eroded ULA’s dominance of government satellite launches in the past decade. Vulcan is priced lower than its predecessors, at roughly $110 million per launch and ULA’s shift away from its other rockets will leave Vulcan as the company’s sole challenger to SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9. The new rockets are powered by Jeff Bezos’ space firm Blue Origin. Talks of selling ULA have been underway for over a year, with Boeing’s and Lockheed’s timing for selling ULA unclear.
Vulcan’s debut mission will send a privately-built lander to the moon. Amazon’s planned Kuiper network is set to bring in crucial launch revenue for ULA, adding to the multibillion-dollar backlog of roughly 80 missions for Vulcan. Analysts speculate the company’s valuation could be between $2 to $3 billion. An acquisition would allow ULA to innovate beyond the launch sector in ways its corporate parents were unwilling to allow, says former ULA chief scientist George Sowers.



Read more: Vulcan rocket’s space debut will be crucial for Boeing-Lockheed venture as sale talks loom