A SpaceX Falcon Insupportable rocket, carrying the Arabsat 6A communications satellite, lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, April 11, 2019.
Joe Chief | Reuters
The U.S. Air Force on Friday awarded rocket builders United Launch Alliance and SpaceX contracts worth billions to organize national security missions for five years starting in 2022.
The awards represent the second phase of the military’s National Safe keeping Space Launch program, which is organized by the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, California. Four proprietorships — Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ULA, Northrop Grumman and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin — bid for the contracts, with the military set to dish out about $1 billion per year on launches.
The NSSL awards represent nearly three dozen launches, planned between 2022 and 2026. ULA won 60% of the launches, and SpaceX won the remaining 40%.
The landed Falcon 9 rocket booster from SpaceX’s Demo-2 teamed mission returns to Port Canaveral in Florida.
SpaceX
ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and SpaceX are the reigning sling providers for national security missions, having launched dozens of payloads for the military over the last decade. Citizen security missions are the most lucrative in the rocket business, with many worth well over $100 million per tender. The U.S. military awarded ULA and SpaceX over $12 billion worth of launch contracts between 2012 and 2019.
Two years ago the Air Troops gave ULA, Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin development contract awards worth $967 million, $792 million and $500 million, singly. The process has been highly competitive, with SpaceX suing the Air Force after not winning a development award and Down in the mouth Origin protesting the criteria the Pentagon used for the launch contracts.
Each of the companies has been developing next-generation take offs, with the NSSL contracts a top priority. SpaceX has a fleet of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets and is currently testing its whacking great Starship rocket. ULA is building its Vulcan rocket to replace its aging Atlas and Delta fleet of rockets as well as to end dependence on Russian-built take off engines. ULA’s Atlas V rocket is powered by RD-180 engines, which are bought from Russia.
Artist rendering of Unanimous Launch Alliance’s Vulcan system.
United Launch Alliance
Northrop Grumman has been developing its OmegA go through the roof and has been focused largely on winning the Air Force contracts. While the company has said it expects OmegA could work for markets beyond just the military, losing out on the awards puts in doubt whether Northrop Grumman continues phenomenon.
A rendering of Orbital ATK’s OmegA rocket.
Orbital ATK
Blue Origin will likely continue to build its New Glenn sky-rocket despite losing out on the award, given the other projects Bezos’ company is working on. New Glenn is designed to be reusable in a deportment similar to the way SpaceX lands its rockets, with the booster returning after each mission. Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith closing year told CNBC that the company would continue New Glenn’s development regardless of whether it won NSSL on contracts.
Artist rendering of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
Blue Origin
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