SpaceX, rival split 6 U.S. launches
Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and its rival United Launch Alliance will split six military space launches, the Pentagon and Air Force said in announcing results of the latest competition between the U.S.’ national security launch providers.
Closely held SpaceX won a $297-million contract for two National Reconnaissance Office launches and one Air Force Space Command mission, the Pentagon said Tuesday without providing details.
United Launch Alliance — a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., the two biggest U.S. defense contractors — was awarded a $441.7-million fixed-price contract to launch the fifth and possibly the sixth Space-Based Infrared System early warning satellites.
They are designed to provide an alert if intercontinental ballistic missiles are launched from Russia, China, North Korea or Iran.
Also included in the contract that United Launch Alliance won: the launch of a prestigious new secret payload in 2022 called “Silent Barker.”
It’s a collaborative effort with the National Reconnaissance Office, which manages the design and development of intelligence satellites.
The payload “will provide threat indications and warning and space situational awareness information to better meet our warfighting mission,” Gen. John Raymond, head of the Air Force Space Command, told a House Armed Services Committee panel last year.
SpaceX previously won six awards in competition with United Launch Alliance since it was certified in 2015 for national security launches, including missions to launch next-generation GPS-III satellites.
SpaceX won Air Force certification to take on military payloads after Musk campaigned before Congress and in the courts denouncing Boeing and Lockheed for having a monopoly on the Pentagon’s space business.
The Pentagon’s inspector general said this month that it will begin a review of the Air Force’s 2015 certification of SpaceX’s primary launch vehicles, the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, to determine “whether the U.S. Air Force complied with the Launch Services New Entrant Certification Guide when certifying the launch system.”
United Launch Alliance also has faced controversy over its dependence on Russian-built engines. It and other companies are working on developing a U.S.built alternative.