Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Defense Department has selected Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the Boeing-Lockheed United Launch Alliance (ULA) joint venture for national security space missions, making the initial selection as part of a $5.6 billion awards program .
The Pentagon did not specify which of the rocket companies it selected, but noted that seven companies are vying to participate in the program, which involves building future rockets that should be ready to make their first flights into space by December.
The three companies are the first to be selected as part of the Pentagon’s lucrative National Security Space Launch Phase 3 acquisition program, a multibillion-dollar competition between U.S. rocket companies vying to launch some of the nation’s most sensitive military and intelligence satellites into space in the next year or so. decade.
SpaceX and ULA, two titans in the launch industry, have been the Pentagon’s primary launch providers since 2020 under an earlier program called Phase 2. This program gave ULA a 60% share of all Pentagon missions through 2027, with SpaceX receiving the rest. .
But in the program’s third phase, the Pentagon was looking to a wider range of companies for its space missions in the next decade, largely to encourage more competition in the U.S. launch sector.
Thursday’s announcement brings Bezos’ rocket and human spaceflight company Blue Origin into a competitive arena it has long wanted to enter as it tries to bring its giant New Glenn rocket to market and strengthen its competitive position with SpaceX.
SpaceX’s partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket has dominated the launch industry while the company tests its next-generation Starship rocket, a massive, fully reusable launch system that Musk sees as critical to getting people into space and launching large batches of satellites into orbit.
While ULA’s workhorse Atlas (NYSE:) 5 is nearing retirement, its next-generation Vulcan rocket is poised to become the company’s centerpiece launch vehicle. Vulcan first flew this year, and its second mission – a critical step in gaining certification for Pentagon missions – 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 missiles in the Pentagon program.
The third phase of the Pentagon program is divided into two categories: “Path 1” and “Path 2.” “Path 1,” the category announced Thursday, allows newer or specialized missiles to carry out national security missions that have less stringent requirements. Other companies, such as Rocket Lab, are expected to join Band 1 in the coming years.
In Lane 2, whose awards have not yet been announced, three companies whose rockets are capable of meeting a broader range of national security mission requirements will be selected, indicating that the most experienced players such as SpaceX and ULA will be most eligible for the award.