"For quite sometime arianespace was running away with the commercial launch business, but I think that even they have had to come to the conclusion that there are just too many launch systems for the amount of commercial business. Boeing, which had high hopes for the Delta IV for the commercial business has even had to conclude that it just will not be profitable enough to warrent the continued expanse, and has dropped out of the market. Of course, in their case this might also be a result of their own highly successful SeaLaunch business. They don't want to be cometing with themselves for the same business!<br /><br />However, LM has no such other business to be competing with the Atlas V, and is evidently going to continue in the commercial satellite launch area."<br /><br /><br />Boeing only owns 40% of Sea Launch, and its main contribution is limited to payload processing. The other Sea Launch partners (RSC Energia, SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash, and Kvaerner ASA) take home 60% of the Sea Launch profits, if there are any profits.<br /><br />Lockheed owns 50% of International Launch Services, which offers launch services aboard both Proton and Atlas. Proton builder Krunichev owns the other 50%. Most of the ILS commercial launches have been performed by Proton in recent years, limiting Atlas V to only one commercial launch during each of the past three years, acting as a kind of back-up to Proton.<br /><br />What happened to Ariane also happened to Delta and Atlas. What happened was Proton and Sea Launch Zenit. These Russian and Russo-Ukrainian rockets cost less than their western counterparts, and have proven themselves to be pretty reliable (both have been more reliable than Ariane 5 to date, for example). Arianespace had a tough competitor when it flew Ariane 4 rockets, but the company phased Ariane 4 out a few years ago and has struggled to compete with its troublesome Ariane 5. Boeing and Lockheed have simply been unable to offer their EELVs at prices that could co