Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance Picked for Pentagon Rocket Launch Contracts

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Defense Department has chosen Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the Boeing-Lockheed United Launch Alliance (ULA) joint venture to compete in national security space missions, making initial selections under a $5.6 billion awards program.

The Pentagon did not say which of the companies’ rockets it selected, but noted that seven companies competed to enter the program, which seeks future rockets that should be ready to carry out their first missions to space by December.

The three companies are the first to be selected under the Pentagon’s lucrative National Security Space Launch Phase 3 acquisition program, a multibillion-dollar competition among U.S. rocket companies competing to launch some of the most sensitive military and intelligence satellites. from the country to space over the next decade or so. .

SpaceX and ULA, two titans of the launch industry, have since 2020 been the Pentagon’s primary rocket launch providers under a predecessor program, called Phase 2. That program gave ULA a 60% stake in all launches. Pentagon missions through 2027, with SpaceX taking the rest. .

But in the third phase of the program, the Pentagon sought a wider variety of companies for its space missions over the next decade, primarily to spur more competition in the U.S. launch sector.

Thursday’s announcement puts Bezos’ rocket launch and human spaceflight company Blue Origin in a competitive arena it has long wanted to enter as it tries to bring its giant New Glenn rocket to market and boost its competitive position with to SpaceX.

SpaceX’s partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket has dominated the launch industry as the company tests the launch of its next-generation Starship rocket, a massive, fully reusable launch system that Musk sees as crucial to getting humans into space and launching large batches of satellites in orbit.

As ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket approaches retirement, its next-generation Vulcan rocket is poised to become the company’s core launcher. Vulcan launched for the first time this year, and its second mission – a crucial step towards receiving mission certification from the Pentagon – has been delayed, but is expected to fly later this year.

The three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the role of their rockets in the Pentagon program.

The Pentagon’s Phase 3 program is divided into two categories, Track 1 and Track 2. Track 1, the category in Thursday’s announcement, allows more new or specialized rockets to fly in national security missions that have less stringent requirements. . More companies, like Rocket Lab, are expected to be added to Track 1 in the coming years.

The U.S. Space Force, which manages the launch acquisition program, said Blue Origin received $5 million to provide an assessment of how it will meet the Pentagon’s launch requirements. SpaceX and ULA — companies the Space Force is most familiar with — each received $1.5 million.

Track 2, awards for which are expected in the fall, will feature three companies whose rockets are capable of meeting a wide variety of national security mission requirements, indicating that more experienced entrants such as SpaceX and ULA will be better suited to the awards.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette and Jasper Ward; Editing by Jamie Freed)