United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed, has publicly promised to be ready in four years.

ECONOMIST: Science

The United Launch Alliance in which traditional providers Lockheed Martin and Boeing are partnered to offer both Atlas and Delta launch vehicles has had 50 successful launches in a row.

FORBES: The Case Against SpaceX, Part II

Boeing has progressed to final design stages for its CST-100 vehicle, a capsule that will fly atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, which has a proven track record launching unmanned satellites.

FORBES: Rescuing NASA From Terminal Public Apathy

Last May, they announced a plan to merge their space-launch operations into a new venture, the United Launch Alliance, and the Federal Trade Commission is expected to approve the deal sometime this month.

FORBES: The New Space Race

One alternative to Ares, proposed by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, is to use modified versions of their existing Delta 4 and Atlas 5 rockets both to go to the moon and to resupply the space station, but at lower cost.

ECONOMIST: Human spaceflight

They showed video of that launch an well as discussed their plans for creating human rated vehicles to create an alternative to Russian Soyuz spacecraft for human flights to the ISS. The United Launch Alliance has had 62 successful satellite launches since 2006 and it is working on a human-rated Atlas rocket launch by 2015-2016.

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After mid-August, NASA and the United Space Alliance will have to stand Discovery back on its end in anticipation of the launch of the third Hubble repair run (planned for October).

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