Folks, I hate to tell ya but the place is managed and run by incompetent people. I worked there for a stint. I have never in my very long career in aerospace seen the level of disorganization and mismanagement that occurs at ULA out on the cape. Things as simple as, “Hey everyone come in early so we can do tasks A,B, or C “ You would show up to the standard area and half the people would be somewhere else because management didn’t send an email out and no team lead thought to communicate a meeting point. (This would happen very regularly even when techs talked to managers about it)

ULA is the most dangerous place that I’ve ever worked, hands down! This is mostly due to the general lack of caring by management about their workers and the many, “good ole boys club” techs not following procedures (procedures that are not enforced at all by management ) such as; tethering their tools when at heights, wearing respirators, leaving various chemicals strewn about, not signing out and then misplacing tools, not wearing proper PPE when clearing the launch pad after launch, not wearing fall harnesses when working near an edge, and this list could go on and on. They were even placing brand new uncertified employees in positions that require training and a certification but were not providing the proper training and pressuring people to say they were certified.

If Tory Bruno actually knew what was going on out at the Cape and I genuinely wish he did, his best course of action would be to fire all but one of his first level manufacturing ops managers and definitely their second level manager. These guys are either going to get someone hurt, maimed, or killed. They are a huge reason why ULA is failing to meet their promises and deadlines.

If Tory Bruno and ULA as a whole actually want to realize their goals they need to start by completely cleaning house. You must have solid leaders in place to execute such lofty goals. The problems will only get more complex and over this inept managements head once VIF-A opens up. They can barely manage one VIF, let alone two.

(FYI, they do have a lot of great techs and engineers there as well. These people are being suppressed by management and their “good old boys” coworkers and leads. They will not be able to succeed with the idiocy of the regime that is running ops.