Destin Sandlin tours United Launch Alliance's rocket factory with CEO Tory Bruno, showing friction stir welding, structural rocket skins and large milled parts.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN recommends it as a rare look inside a rocket factory and cites it for manufacturing details like welding methods.
“If you haven't watched Smarter Every Day's ULA factory tour I highly recommend it.”HN comment, 2020
“If you haven't watched Smarter Every Day's ULA factory tour I highly recommend it.”
ULA factory tour including materials improved by computer modeling
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A lot of rocketry advancement would not be happening if SpaceX didn't enter as a competitor. For that reason alone SpaceX should be lauded. It helps that SpaceX is pursuing the dream of a space faring civilization that was promised decades ago. Relativity Space looks cool. But until they launch they will sit in the stack of neat tech to maybe be excited about. I am excited by humans doing things to advance the species. I don't care much who is doing it. But, I have been burned by too much vaporware to get excited by marketing pieces. If you haven't watched Smarter Every Day's ULA factory tour I highly recommend it. There is even a nice bit about how their materials have improved as computers were better able to model stresses. this video
Recommends725686May 2020
“Smarter Every Day has a very interesting video[1] inside the factory of United Launch Alliance”
ULA factory tour showing friction stir welding on Atlas
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Smarter Every Day has a very interesting video[1] inside the factory of United Launch Alliance in which, among a lot of other things, shows the friction stir welding used in their Atlas Rocket[2]: [1] this video [2] this video
RecommendspolytelyAug 2021
“Smarter Everyday did a tour of the ULA facilities [0], which is also worth checking out if you like this kind of thing.”
ULA facility tour
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It's so cool to get a tour like this, fascinating stuff. The part at 13:30 seems to be some really valuable knowledge, when he says: if you are not occasionally adding things back in, it means that you are not eliminating stuff aggressively enough. Smarter Everyday did a tour of the ULA facilities [0], which is also worth checking out if you like this kind of thing. [0]: this video
RecommendsAdamJacobMullerJun 2024
“Also literally everything Destin/SmarterEveryDay puts online is worth watching.”
ULA also gave a factory tour
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In fairness, ULA has done that too. this video Also literally everything Destin/SmarterEveryDay puts online is worth watching.
RecommendstiffanyhDec 2025
“There’s a great “Smarter Every Day” video on how rockets are made and the guest host was Tory Bruno.”
Tory Bruno guest-hosts how rockets are made
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There’s a great “Smarter Every Day” video on how rockets are made and the guest host was Tory Bruno. this video Two things I recall from this video from years ago 1. Tory really seemed to be a true expert. Not a typical “CEO”. 2. Seems like a genuinely nice guy, see this moment when Tory recognized Dustin’s dad link
ULA uses resistance welding for stainless upper stages
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> Ideally you would use a turntable to rotate the cylinder while welding the sections together with a sub-arc machine. link Uh, at least in the video that steel is pretty thick. Starships skin is slightly less than 4mm thick... while in that video they have a 2cm deep groove, would the same technique actually work? For what it's worth, ULA stainless steel (<1mm thickness) upper stages are resistance welded instead this video That said, I think a lot of the decisions right now are based on "what can we quickly experiment with" not "what is a good long term plan". Building a 9m turntable (diameter of the rocket) would take a long time.
Cites itrtkweJul 2020
“Destin from Smarter Every Day did a tour of the ULA factory where you can see the skin that provides a lot of the structure for their rockets.”
Shows ULA rocket skin providing structure
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Doing a model rocket would be tougher there's a lot of bits they just couldn't show him due to ITAR restrictions. Also beyond the engines rockets are a LOT of empty space, there is some interesting structure in the skin but most of the volume is just empty. Destin from Smarter Every Day did a tour of the ULA factory where you can see the skin that provides a lot of the structure for their rockets. this video
Cites itenragedcactiMar 2023
“Many of the huge parts in this SmarterEveryDay video at ULA have tool markings e.g. at 8:40.”
Shows large CNC-milled rocket parts with tool markings
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I'm far from an expert but it seems like at least some companies use cnc milling very extensively which I can't imagine is all that fast either. Many of the huge parts in this SmarterEveryDay video at ULA have tool markings e.g. at 8:40. I'm also skeptical of 3d printing being as big of a boon as they pitch but I also wouldn't be super surprised if it nets an improvement in speed for some parts. this video
