The business case for launching forgotten rockets

Dormant U.S. missiles can be repurposed, company says

They were once among the fiercest weapons of the Cold War, capable of delivering nuclear warheads to any place on the planet. But for years, the Pentagon’s stockpile of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles have been living out a peaceful retirement, hol- stered in underground, climate-controlled bunkers where they are periodically maintained and tested by the U.S. air force.

To at least one company, that’s a waste of a perfectly good rocket.

Orbital ATK wants to unearth the dormant missiles and repurpose them to launch commercial satellites into orbit. Russia has released its Soviet-era ICBMs into the commercial market, the company argues, so the Pentagon should be allowed to sell its unused ICBMs as well. In order to do that, though, U.S. Congress would have to ease a 20-yearold restriction that prohibits the sale of the missile motors for commercial use.

And that has touched off a rancorous battle that has extended from the Pentagon to Capitol Hill. It has also consumed the growing commercial space industry, which fears the government’s release of the motors would undercut the industry.

Fuelled by billionaires and outside investors, commercial space has entered something of a renaissance, launching cargo and eventually astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA, developing space tourism businesses and competing for commercial satellite launches. Now some fear the government subsidized ICBMs could upend the market. A sale of the motors would effectively allow the government to compete with private industry.