Space Force adds three more rocket startups to its rapid launch program
Capitalism in space: The Space Force announced today that it has added the three smallsat rocket companies ABL, Astra, and Relativity to its program, dubbed OSP-4, to develop rockets that can be launched quickly at a moment’s notice.
OSP-4 is an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for rapid acquisition of launch services. Vendors compete for individual orders, and have to be able to launch payloads larger than 400 pounds to any orbit within 12 to 24 months from contract award.
The OSP-4 contract vehicle was created in October 2019 and eight companies were selected then: Aevum, Firefly, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, SpaceX., United Launch Alliance, VOX Space [Virgin Orbit], and X-Bow Launch.
There are now 11 vendors in the program that will compete for 20 missions over the next nine years. OSP-4 is authorized up to $986 million for launch contracts over that period.
Of these eleven companies, five have operational rockets (Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, Virgin Orbit, and ULA) and five have announced plans to do their first orbital launch this year (Aevum, ABL, Astra, Relativity, and Firefly), with Astra’s first orbital flight scheduled for later this month. The schedule of the remaining X-Bow remains unknown.
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Capitalism in space: The Space Force announced today that it has added the three smallsat rocket companies ABL, Astra, and Relativity to its program, dubbed OSP-4, to develop rockets that can be launched quickly at a moment’s notice.
OSP-4 is an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for rapid acquisition of launch services. Vendors compete for individual orders, and have to be able to launch payloads larger than 400 pounds to any orbit within 12 to 24 months from contract award.
The OSP-4 contract vehicle was created in October 2019 and eight companies were selected then: Aevum, Firefly, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, SpaceX., United Launch Alliance, VOX Space [Virgin Orbit], and X-Bow Launch.
There are now 11 vendors in the program that will compete for 20 missions over the next nine years. OSP-4 is authorized up to $986 million for launch contracts over that period.
Of these eleven companies, five have operational rockets (Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, Virgin Orbit, and ULA) and five have announced plans to do their first orbital launch this year (Aevum, ABL, Astra, Relativity, and Firefly), with Astra’s first orbital flight scheduled for later this month. The schedule of the remaining X-Bow remains unknown.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
The schedules of the remaining two (VOX Space and X-Bow) remain unknown.
Vox has had three launches, two of them successful. The most recent was 30 June 2021.
mkent: Those were not orbital launches. I know of no announcements of when those orbital launches will occur. If you do please provide a source.
Those were not orbital launches. I know of no announcements of when those orbital launches will occur. If you do please provide a source.
They were orbital launches. The first, a failure, was a demo. The second and third (successful) launches orbited the Elana 20 and STP-27VPA payloads, respectively
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LauncherOne#Past_launches
mkent: VOX is Virgin Orbit! I had not realized they were using an obscure acronym that no one ever uses. How dumb. I will fix.
Bob: Oh, yeah. Vox is the government services subsidiary of Virgin Orbit, much like ULS is the services subsidiary of ULA. You’ll sometimes see government press releases referring to ULS instead of ULA for the same reason.
X-Bow (Pronounced Crossbow) has ZERO info on it’s website but the two part SBIR for 2018 thru 2021 is worth 3.1 million.
2018 SBIR says: X-Bow Launch Systems and its partners have developed a feasible concept to additively manufacture solid propellant. This additive manufacturing method, adapted from existing scaleable processes, will reduce the lifecycle cost and improve the overall responsiveness of the X-Bow Launch Systems vehicle. The innovation is to adapt breakthrough manufacturing processes developed for the Li-Ion battery industry. This technology will move to TRL 4 level during the Phase I effort; a rapid Phase II plan to move the Technology to the TRL 6/7 range has been identified….by incorporating this technology, the potential improvement to the performance of the X-Bow launch vehicle is ~30%.
2020 SIBR says: This Additive Manufacturing (AM) method will address and lower affordability hurdles of a solid-propellant launch system, while at the same time increase its responsiveness. The AM method will handle all principle solid propellant constituents ( Fuel, Oxidizer, Binder, Cure Agent, Plasticizer and other additives. The AM method will be prototyped built and demonstrated through a Full Scale integrated ground test of a 30″ diameter small launch rocket motor.
Betcha Navy, Army and Air Force might be interested in a up to 30 inch in diameter rocket motor with 30% improved capabilities given the steep decline in US solid rocket motor industrial base with ALL major manufacturers locked up in two big integrators, NG and LM.
They better have good security! ITAR to me should mean solids. Give China Delta IV blueprints now? Big whoop. But solid tech should stay in the black as much as possible-thus no internet presence. Someone looks up ‘crossbow’ and they’d find Boeing’s Stratolaunch on stilts Quickreach era contraption.
Jeff – I agree on both your points. I think that’s why this company calls itself X-Bow to prevent confusion with Boeing “Quickreach” old stuff.
I see solids use in quick response launches for urgent military space launches but these kinds of solid motors in diameters smaller than 30 inches may be very useful for tactical missiles as well. In any case, I am certain that ITAR will be fully in place for all this stuff.
In the future, I see payloads shrouds an an all-solid autophage rocket tailored exactly to the 3D printed payload rising out of the same vat at the bottom of an autoclave-silo and hot launched…nothing to reuse as the rocket burns away as thrust….burning like a lit cigarette….to nothing….that’s where this is headed.