Two familiar rocket firms won the chance to continue carrying satellites into orbit when the U.S. Space Force awarded the next phase of a contract to launch future military missions.
United Launch Alliance and Space Exploration Technologies were selected for the missions under a long-awaited National Security Space Launch Phase 2 procurement announcement made last week.
The competition included two other firms — Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin — in the bid to carry payloads for the military and National Reconnaissance Office.
“This is a groundbreaking day, culminating years of strategic planning and effort by the Department of the Air Force, NRO, and our launch service industry partners,” said Dr. William Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. “Maintaining a competitive launch market, servicing both government and commercial customers, is how we encourage continued innovation on assured access to space.”
The Phase 2 contracts are for launch service orders starting in fiscal year 2020 through 2024, with the first missions set to blast off in fiscal year 2022 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
ULA will receive approximately 60 percent of launch services orders with its Vulcan vehicle.
SpaceX, will receive approximately 40 percent of orders over the contract period using its Falcon family of rockets.
The contract also will lead to an end of rockets employing Russian-made RD-180 engines to put U.S. government satellites into space.
Instead, ULA has worked to develop the Vulcan rocket using American-made engines to carry military satellites to space.
“Vulcan Centaur is the right choice for critical national security space missions, and was purpose built to meet all of the requirements of our nation’s space launch needs,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and chief executive officer.
“For decades, we have been a trusted partner to safely and securely deliver strategic national security space assets for our nation’s defense, and this award shows the continued confidence of our customer in the commitment and dedication of our people to safeguard these missions by reliably launching our country’s most critical and challenging missions,” Bruno added.
Launches under the contract will occur through 2027 from Florida, and eventually from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
“Our Atlas and Delta rockets have been the backbone of American space launch for decades, and with Vulcan Centaur, we continue to build on this progressive history of technology and advancement,” said Bruno. “Vulcan Centaur provides higher performance and greater affordability, while continuing to deliver our unmatched reliability and orbital precision that will continue to provide reliable, on-time access to space well into the future.”
However, the West Coast will have to wait for the debut of Vulcan since two more Atlas missions remain before crews can start to modify Space Launch Complex-3 for the new booster.
The announcement coincided with the first three missions assigned under Phase 2, with a pair assigned to ULA and another to SpaceX.
The decision likely means the Air Force will end previously issued contracts with Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin.
In late 2018, Blue Origin, founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, hailed its award of $400 million that would have helped build the launch pad at Vandenberg for New Glenn rocket.
Blue Origin’s CEO Bob Smith expressed disappointment that the decision did not include selection of New Glenn.
He said the firm will proceed with New Glenn development to fulfill current commercial contracts, and seek other customers.
“We remain confident New Glenn will play a critical role for the national security community in the future due to the increasing realization that space is a contested domain, and a robust, responsive, and resilient launch capability is ever more vital to U.S security,” Smith said.
It’s not clear what role, if any, Vandenberg would have in New Glenn without winning the military contract.
Blue Origin can claim a partial win since the BE-4 engine will power ULA’s Vulcan launch vehicle in support of the Space Force’s NSSL program and end reliance on Russian-built engines.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.