Mark Wilkins Vice President, Atlas Product Line

Denver, Colo., (May 8, 2008) United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced this week that the current vice presidents of the Atlas and Delta programs will exchange positions, effective May 19, 2008. Jim Sponnick, formerly Atlas program vice president, will become Delta product line vice president. Mark Wilkins, formerly Delta program vice president, will become Atlas product line vice president. The two leaders will be collocated at the ULA headquarters in Centennial, Colo.

The strategic organization change is intended to accelerate progress at ULA toward a one-company culture. ULA was formed in December 2006 as a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and The Boeing Company, combining the Atlas and Delta families of launch vehicles.

“Mark and Jim will take the extensive knowledge they have of their heritage programs and apply that experience with a fresh perspective to the Atlas and Delta vehicles,” said Michael Gass, president and chief executive officer of ULA. “These changes will help ULA achieve our objective of providing perfect product delivery and best value to our customers with our rocket product lines.”

Jim Sponnick Vice President, Delta Product Line

Wilkins began his career with McDonnell Douglas in 1979, which was acquired later by Boeing. At Boeing he headed up the Delta cryogenic stage development and was chief engineer for Boeing’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. In 2005 he was named Delta vice president and joined ULA at its formation in 2006.

Sponnick began his career with General Dynamics in 1982 on the Atlas program, which was acquired by Martin Marietta in 1994. Throughout the 1990s he held numerous engineering and project management positions on the Atlas program at Martin Marietta and later Lockheed Martin. In 2003 he was named Atlas vice president and joined ULA at its formation in 2006.

Both vice presidents will lead their product lines in developing common processes, personnel capabilities and product evolution that will enable ULA’s consolidation and vision of being the aerospace leader in systems integration, mission success and continuous improvement.

ULA program management, engineering, test and mission support functions are headquartered in Denver, Colo., supported by transition employees in Huntington Beach, Calif. Manufacturing, assembly and integration operations are located at Decatur, Ala., Harlingen, Texas, San Diego, Calif., and Denver, Colo. Launch operations are located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.