Space Force awards SpaceX and ULA new launch contracts worth $2.5 billion
Space Force yesterday awarded both SpaceX and ULA new launch contracts worth $2.5 billion and totaling 21 launches over the next two to three years.
The final batch of assignments were split almost evenly, according to Col. Doug Pentecost, the deputy program executive officer of the Space Force’s Space Systems Command. ULA received 11 missions, valued at $1.3 billion, and SpaceX received 10 missions, valued at $1.23 billion.
Space Systems Command said the missions are scheduled to launch over the next two to three years. ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, will use its soon-to-debut Vulcan rocket for the 11 missions, while SpaceX will fly seven missions with its Falcon 9 rocket and three missions with its Falcon Heavy rocket.
For SpaceX this award is no surprise. The ULA contract is more puzzling. Supposedly the Space Force was not going to award any launch contracts for ULA’s new Vulcan rocket until it successfully launched twice and was certified by the military as operational. Yet, it has now awarded ULA this contract for Vulcan launches. Has the military awarded the contract on a contingency basis? What happens if Vulcan has a failure on one of its first two launches?
The Space Force’s present arrangement limits bidding for launches to just these two companies. If Vulcan fails will it open bidding to other companies, or will it transfer launches to SpaceX?
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Space Force yesterday awarded both SpaceX and ULA new launch contracts worth $2.5 billion and totaling 21 launches over the next two to three years.
The final batch of assignments were split almost evenly, according to Col. Doug Pentecost, the deputy program executive officer of the Space Force’s Space Systems Command. ULA received 11 missions, valued at $1.3 billion, and SpaceX received 10 missions, valued at $1.23 billion.
Space Systems Command said the missions are scheduled to launch over the next two to three years. ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, will use its soon-to-debut Vulcan rocket for the 11 missions, while SpaceX will fly seven missions with its Falcon 9 rocket and three missions with its Falcon Heavy rocket.
For SpaceX this award is no surprise. The ULA contract is more puzzling. Supposedly the Space Force was not going to award any launch contracts for ULA’s new Vulcan rocket until it successfully launched twice and was certified by the military as operational. Yet, it has now awarded ULA this contract for Vulcan launches. Has the military awarded the contract on a contingency basis? What happens if Vulcan has a failure on one of its first two launches?
The Space Force’s present arrangement limits bidding for launches to just these two companies. If Vulcan fails will it open bidding to other companies, or will it transfer launches to SpaceX?
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
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
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.
This one really screams for some congressional questioning. I’d love to see what analysis they did, if any. I’d also like to see what ULA claimed in terms of availability. The odds of ULA being able to meet that launch schedule, much less meet that schedule in addition to their Kuiper launch schedule, are essentially zero. I’d also expect they’ll be losing money at that pricing.
If ULA had any payload related intellectual property and then sub contracted with Spacex for LEO placement then ULA could make 10%
But seriously, gov/dod likes to have two sources so much that it will move heaven and earth to push ULA.
How interesting it would be if 1) ULA can’t launch and SpaceX volunteers to take on the missions, IF they can do so with StarShip and/or 2) SpaceX comes back and states that the Falcon Heavy missions could be done better / cheaper / faster with StarShip.
Might this be a way to get the Space Force and DoD to lean on the FAA and the Fish & Wildlife Service?
“Might this be a way to get the Space Force and DoD to lean on the FAA and the Fish & Wildlife Service?”
No, they know what will happen to them and their careers if they dare try it.
If they are lucky enough to not be cashiered, they will be commanding a unit in Alaska charged with shoveling snow.
I noticed also that ULA has the contract for launching the DRACO NTR “test vehicle” (I’m being generous). Is this because someone still thinks that ULA is “safer”, with visions of depleted Uranium spewing over the landscape after a catastrophe.
Just a passing thought,,,
Charles Lurio: An excellent fact I had missed. Thank you.
The bottom line is that the military is not wrong to want to have two launch vehicles, and sadly ULA is right now its only other option that is even close to matching SpaceX. It is essentially paying for Jeff Bezos’s unwillingness to clean house four years ago when it became obvious that Bob Smith was not up to the job.
If you want NTR–than means hydrogen–and that means Centaur/SLS.