After years of lobbying, protests, and bidding, Jeff Bezos’s area firm is now a army launch contractor.
The US Area Pressure introduced Thursday that Blue Origin will compete with United Launch Alliance and SpaceX for a minimum of 30 army launch contracts over the subsequent 5 years. These launch contracts have a mixed worth of as much as $5.6 billion.
That is the primary of two main contract selections the Area Pressure will make this yr because the army seeks to foster extra competitors amongst its roster of launch suppliers and cut back its reliance on only one or two corporations.
For greater than a decade following its formation from the merger of Boeing and Lockheed Martin rocket applications, ULA was the only firm licensed to launch the army’s most crucial satellites. This modified in 2018, when SpaceX began launching nationwide safety satellites for the army. In 2020, regardless of protests from Blue Origin searching for eligibility, the Pentagon chosen ULA and SpaceX to proceed sharing launch duties.
The Nationwide Safety Area Launch (NSSL) program is in command of deciding on contractors to ship army surveillance, navigation, and communications satellites into orbit.
Over the subsequent 5 years, the Area Pressure desires to faucet into new launch capabilities from rising area corporations. The procurement strategy for this new spherical of contracts, often known as NSSL Part 3, is completely different from the best way the army beforehand purchased launch companies. As an alternative of grouping all nationwide safety launches into one monolithic contract, the Area Pressure is dividing them into two classifications: Lane 1 and Lane 2.
The Area Pressure’s contract introduced Thursday was for Lane 1, which is for much less demanding missions to low-Earth orbit. These missions embrace smaller tech demos, experiments, and launches for the army’s new constellation of missile-tracking and data-relay satellites, an effort that may finally embrace a whole lot or hundreds of spacecraft managed by the Pentagon’s Area Improvement Company.
This fall, the Area Pressure will award as much as three contracts for Lane 2, which covers the federal government’s most delicate nationwide safety satellites, which require “advanced safety and integration necessities.” These are sometimes giant, heavy spacecraft weighing many tons and generally needing to go to orbits hundreds of miles from Earth. The Area Pressure would require Lane 2 contractors to undergo a extra in depth certification course of than is required in Lane 1.
“At present marks the start of this revolutionary, dual-lane strategy to launch service acquisition, whereby Lane 1 serves our commercial-like missions that may settle for extra threat and Lane 2 offers our conventional, full mission assurance for essentially the most stressing heavy-lift launches of our most risk-averse missions,” stated Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Pressure for area acquisition and integration.
Assembly the standards
The Area Pressure obtained seven bids for Lane 1, however solely three corporations met the standards to affix the army’s roster of launch suppliers. The essential requirement to win a Lane 1 contract was for a corporation to indicate its rocket can place a minimum of 15,000 kilos of payload mass into low-Earth orbit, both on a single flight or over a sequence of flights inside a 90-day interval.
The bidders additionally needed to substantiate their plan to launch the rocket they proposed to make use of for Lane 1 missions by December 15 of this yr. A spokesperson for Area Programs Command stated SpaceX proposed utilizing their Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, and ULA provided its Vulcan rocket. These launchers are already flying. Blue Origin proposed its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket, slated for an inaugural take a look at flight no sooner than September.
“As we anticipated, the pool of awardees is small this yr as a result of many corporations are nonetheless maturing their launch capabilities,” stated Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program govt officer for the Area Pressure’s assured entry to area division. “Our technique accounted for this by permitting on-ramp alternatives yearly, and we anticipate growing competitors and variety as new suppliers and techniques full growth.”
Trevor Mahlmann/Ars Technica
The Area Pressure plans to open up the primary on-ramp alternative for Lane 1 as quickly as the top of this yr. Firms with medium-lift rockets in earlier levels of growth, similar to Rocket Lab, Relativity Area, Firefly Aerospace, and Stoke Area, could have the prospect to affix ULA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin within the Lane 1 pool at the moment. The construction of the NSSL Part 3 contracts enable the Pentagon to benefit from rising launch capabilities as quickly as they develop into obtainable, in response to Calvelli.
In an announcement, Panzenhagen stated having further launch suppliers will improve the Area Pressure’s “resiliency” in a time of accelerating competitors between the US, Russia, and China in orbit. “Launching extra risk-tolerant satellites on probably much less mature launch techniques utilizing tailor-made unbiased authorities mission assurance may yield substantial operational responsiveness, innovation, and financial savings,” Panzenhagen stated.
Extra competitors, theoretically, will even ship decrease launch costs to the Area Pressure. SpaceX and Blue Origin rockets are partially reusable, whereas ULA finally plans to recuperate and reuse Vulcan predominant engines.
Over the subsequent 5 years, Area Programs Command will dole out fixed-price “job orders” to ULA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin for teams of Lane 1 missions. The primary batch of missions up for awards in Lane 1 embrace seven launches for the Area Improvement Company’s missile monitoring mega-constellation, plus a job order for the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace, the federal government’s spy satellite tv for pc company. Nevertheless, army officers require a rocket to have accomplished a minimum of one profitable orbital launch to win a Lane 1 job order, and Blue Origin’s New Glenn would not but fulfill this requirement.
The Area Pressure pays Blue Origin $5 million for an “preliminary capabilities evaluation” for Lane 1. SpaceX and ULA, the army’s incumbent launch contractors, will every obtain $1.5 million for related assessments.
ULA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin are additionally the highest contenders to win Lane 2 contracts later this yr. To be able to compete in Lane 2, a launch supplier should present it has a plan for its rockets to fulfill the Area Pressure’s stringent certification necessities by October 1, 2026. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are already licensed, and ULA’s Vulcan is on a path to attain this milestone by the top of this yr, pending a profitable second take a look at flight within the subsequent few months. A profitable debut of New Glenn by the top of this yr would put the October 2026 deadline inside attain of Blue Origin.