ULA

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NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA /ˈnæsə/) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.

国家航空航天局是美国联邦政府的一个独立的分支行政（executive）机构（agency），负责民用航天工程（civilian space program）以及航空航天和宇宙空间研究。

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ULA - United Launch Alliance

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. U.S. government launch customers include both the Department of Defense and NASA, as well as other organizations. With ULA, Lockheed and Boeing held a monopoly on military launches for more than a decade, until the US Air Force awarded a GPS satellite contract to SpaceX in 2016.

联合发射联盟是一家由洛克希德马丁航天系统公司、波音国防航天安全公司组建的合资（joint venture）公司。ULA成立于2006年12月，由两家母公司的团队组合而成。这些团队常年为美国政府提供航天飞机（spacecraft）发射服务。美国政府客户包括了国防部（Department of Defence）、国家航空航天局（Nation Aeronautics & Space Administration）以及（as well as）一些其他组织机构。洛克希德和波音通过ULA在军用航天发射领域实现了超过10年的垄断（hold a monopoly），直到2016年SpaceX被美国空军授予（awarded）一份GPS卫星发射合同才结束。

ULA provides launch services using three expendable launch systems – Delta II, Delta IV and Atlas V. The Atlas and Delta launch system families have been used for more than 50 years to carry a variety of payloads including weather, telecommunications and national security satellites, as well as deep space and interplanetary exploration missions in support of scientific research. ULA also provides launch services for non-government satellites: Lockheed Martin retains the rights to market Atlas commercially.

ULA提供的火箭发射服务使用三种一次性火箭（expendable launch systems）：Delta II, Delta IV 和 Atlas V。Atlas和Delta系列火箭已经服役了50年以上。这两套火箭发射了诸多气象卫星、通讯卫星、国家安全卫星以及深空星际探索飞船，极大地扶持了科研事业。ULA也为非政府卫星提供发射服务。洛克希德公司至今仍持有Atlas火箭商业发射的权利。

Beginning in October 2014, ULA announced that they intended to undertake a substantial restructuring of the company, its products and processes, in the coming years in order to decrease launch costs. ULA is planning on building a new rocket that will be a successor to the Atlas V, using a new rocket engine on the first stage. In April 2015, they unveiled the new vehicle as the Vulcan, with the first flight of a new first stage in 2020.

从2014年10月起，ULA宣布他们将在接下来数年（in the coming years）对公司实行大面积重组（substantial restructuring），调整其产品和流程（processes）以减少发射开支（decrease launch costs）。ULA计划（be planning on）建设一套新型火箭接替（successor）Atlas系列。这套新型火箭将在一级火箭（first stage）中使用一枚新式引擎。2015年他们揭开（unveiled）了这个新型火箭的神秘面纱。ULA将之命名为Vulcan（火与锻造之神），并将在2020年启用新式引擎。

SpaceX antitrust issue

SpaceX challenged the United States antitrust law legality of the launch services monopoly on October 23, 2005, creating a competition with reusable launch systems. The FTC gave their anti-trust clearance on October 3, 2006.

2005年10月23日，SpaceX通过反垄断（antitrust）法控诉了发射服务垄断行为，并通过可复用火箭（reusable launch systems）与ULA展开竞争。2006年10月3日，联邦贸易委员会（FTC，Federal Trade Commission）批准（clearance）了SpaceX的反垄断诉求。

Company restructuring after 2014

In October 2014, ULA announced a major restructuring of processes and workforce in order to decrease launch costs by half. One of the reasons given for the restructuring and new cost reduction goals was competition from SpaceX. ULA intends to have preliminary design ideas in place for a blending of the Atlas V and Delta IV technology by the end of 2014, to build a successor that will allow them to cut launch costs in half.

2014年10月，ULA宣布开始对公司流程和人员结构（workforce）大面积重组（major restructuring），以减少一半发射成本（decrease launch costs by half）。重组和节流（cost reduction）的原因之一来自于SpaceX的有力竞争。ULA计划在2014年底（by the end of 2014）产生一个新型火箭的设计雏形（have preliminary design ideas）。这个新型火箭将代替（in place for）现有的混用的（blending）Atlas V和Delta IV的火箭，从而减少一半发射成本（cut launch costs in half）。

The restructuring is intended to facilitate ULA's shift into providing widespread access to space, and growing the customer base to include significant commercial customers in addition to the principally US government customers of ULA's first decade. CEO Tory Bruno stated in November 2014 that he intends to transform the company and reorganize it "to make it more agile, and establish new business models to adapt to the new environment. These changes will lead to improvements in how ULA interacts with its customers, both governmental and commercial, shorter launch cycles, and launch costs cut in half again." ULA intends to shrink the number of company launch pads from six in 2008 and five in 2015 to only two by 2021 as they ramp down the legacy Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles.

这次重组将加速（facilitate）ULA转型（shift into），这样可为客户提供更广泛的接入太空的方式（widespread access to space），除了（in addition to）头十年的金主摇钱树（principally）美国政府客户以外加大用户基础（grow customer base），拓展更多重要的（significant）商业客户。2014年11月时，CEO Tory Bruno说，他致力于引领公司转型（transform）重组（reorganize），使其变得更加敏捷（agile）并建立起新的商业模式（business models）去适应新的行业环境。这样能改善ULA与政商客户的沟通（interacts），减少发射环节（launch cycles）并将发射投入降至原来的一半（cut in half）。ULA想要将公司的发射平台（launch pads）数量从2008年的6座降（shrink）至2015年的5座，并将于2021年减到只剩2座。这些发射平台用于降落（ramp down）老式（legacy）的Atlas V和Delta IV航天飞机（launch vehicles）。

In May 2015, ULA stated that it would go out of business unless it won commercial and civil satellite launch orders to offset an expected slump in U.S. military and spy launches. The same month, ULA announced it would decrease its executive ranks by 30 percent in December 2015, with the layoff of 12 executives. The management layoffs are the "beginning of a major reorganization and redesign" as ULA endeavours to "slash costs and hunt out new customers to ensure continued growth despite the rise of SpaceX".

2015年5月，ULA声称一旦无法赢得商业和民用卫星发射订单以填补（offset）预期下滑的军事和谍报卫星发射业绩（expected slump），它将会倒闭（go out of business）。同一月内，ULA宣布12月前其将裁减30%的管理层（executive ranks），也就是解雇（lay off）12位高管（executives）。管理层（management）的裁员（layoffs）只是公司大型重组（major reorganization）的开始。ULA正奋力（endeavor）减少开支（slash costs）并搜寻（hunt out）新的客户以保持业绩增长（ensure continued growth）来抵御SpaceX崛起带来的巨大冲击（despite the rise of SpaceX）。