Throwback Thursday -- ULA

Welcome to Throwback Thursday, Inside Defense's weekly look back at what was happening on or around this day in years past.

In December 2006, Lockheed Martin and Boeing created the 50-50 venture known as United Launch Alliance to provide space launch services for the U.S. government. 

The companies had received Federal Trade Commission approval in October of that year.

This week, John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is asking the Pentagon to evaluate whether ULA truly cannot compete for an upcoming Global Positioning System launch. The company announced in mid-November it would not compete, citing an inadequate supply of RD-180 engines, concerns the lowest-price, technically acceptable contract structure will not give weight to the company's successful track record and its lack of adequate accounting systems to prove that a previous contract would not benefit its bid.

In a Dec. 8 letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter, McCain writes that he finds ULA's reasons for bowing out of the first competitive Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle opportunity "troubling and suspicious."