WASHINGTON — When Tory Bruno took over as CEO of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) in August, analysts predicted a change in how the launch company did business. But maybe not at this level.
Last week, Bruno began using his personal Twitter account to reply to questions from journalists. While other industry leaders maintain Twitter accounts, they are generally used just to push press releases or quick soundbites; it is pretty rare to see one that is willing to engage with reporters in an open forum — and with critics as well.
Below is a collection of some of Bruno's remarks from Friday and Saturday. First, I asked Bruno to react to the news that competitor SpaceX was dropping a lawsuit against the US Air Force over a decision to award ULA a block-buy of launch contracts. The official line from ULA was to repeat the service's statement, but Bruno went a little further:
Bruno was then tweeted by @TrampolinRocket, a space-enthusiast account that has been critical of ULA in the past.
That, in turn, led to a series of tweets from the ULA head defending the block-buy agreement.
It's not exactly Dmitry Rogozin level stuff — and frankly, this blog can only hope those two begin interactions on Twitter — but it's still interesting to see Bruno take to Twitter and go direct with his message, especially considering the success SpaceX's Elon Musk has had doing the same.
One of the criticisms in the industry about Bruno's predecessor, Michael Gass, has been that he was not proactive enough in getting ULA's message out. It seems that Bruno is looking at using his options to avoid going the same route.
And if anyone was wondering whether Bruno can take a joke, well, he currently follows 90 people on Twitter. And one of them is a Fake Tory Bruno account.
Aaron Mehta was deputy editor and senior Pentagon correspondent for Defense News, covering policy, strategy and acquisition at the highest levels of the Defense Department and its international partners.
