CNBC reporter tours rocket plant, talks ULA, SpaceX feud

CNBC reporter Jane Wells

CNBC reporter Jane Wells (CNBC photo) 

CNBC financial reporter Jane Wells spent Tuesday chasing  America's hottest space feud inside a giant rocket plant in North Alabama, and she had time for a quick meal at one of the state's most famous barbecue restaurants. Her reviews of both? "Jaw-dropping" and three "awesomes."

Jane Wells toured the massive United Launch Alliance plant on the Tennessee River and interviewed ULA CEO Tory Bruno. It was an exclusive and the first time a network has been allowed to film live inside the plant. The openness is because ULA is talking up the new rocket and rocket engine it is developing to compete with SpaceX for launching future generations of American military and space satellites. ULA employs nearly 1,000 people in Decatur.

"You have that sort of ah-ha moment when your jaw drops," Wells said Wednesday of entering ULA's "pristine" 1.6 million-square-foot plant on the Tennessee River. "You see a Delta rocket on its side and you just have to stop and go 'wow.'" Seeing Americans making big, complex things like these rockets "is heartening," Wells said.

Wells asked CEO Tory Bruno some tough questions in a live interview about how SpaceX has challenged ULA's past dominance in the launch industry. (Watch the full interview below.) Bruno disputed Wells' estimates of the two company's launch costs, but acknowledged that ULA's strategy for bridging the gap between the start of a congressional ban on ULA's use of Russian rocket engines and the arrival of its new engine is getting a congressional extension.

"(SpaceX CEO) Elon Musk is the best thing that ever happened to ... the entire space industry," Wells said Wednesday. "He has gotten young engineers excited and gotten us to think about things again like Mars."

Musk has been good for ULA, too, by forcing it to be nimble, Wells said. "They have to compete now in a way they didn't have to before," she said. "Reusability, I don't know if that would have happened without SpaceX."

During her stay, Wells visited Decatur's landmark barbecue restaurant Big Bob's Barbecue. "Awesome, awesome, awesome," she said, "although I did not have the potato." Wells said she had the brisket and potato salad instead.

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