Blue Origin, others get $2.3B contracts

The US Air Force on Wednesday said that it had awarded a total $2.3 billion in contracts to develop rocket launch systems for national security missions. The awards go to Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin; United Launch Services, part of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) joint venture between Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp; and Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems. The three contracts are part of a Department of Defense initiative to assure constant military access to space and curb reliance on foreignmade rocket engines, like ULA’s flagship Atlas V rocket that uses Russian-made RD180 boosters.