SpaceX to launch military equipment

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The US Air Force announced today that it certified SpaceX to launch national security payloads, ending the monopoly held by the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture, United Launch Alliance (ULA).

This decision, to give this mission to  a private contractor, as was announces by the congress lobbyists, which were pushing for the deal, was taken due to much cheaper service, than was the one of its predecessor, the ULA.

This decision might rise a few questions. For instance, was it taken due to the major pressure by the  company’s lobbyists and attorneys in the halls of Congress and the Pentagon, for commercial reasons, or might it be, that the US military is drying out of human and financial resources for such high scale national projects?

The move is another milestone in the development of SpaceX from start-up to a legitimate aerospace company, giving it access to a major customer for its Falcon 9 rocket, which can carry spacecraft weighing several tons into low-earth and geo-synchronous orbits. The company has already successfully performed 18 missions with the rocket, including for NASA and private companies, but National Security launches come with a raft of additional technical, safety, and security requirements.

There is also a geopolitical side of this decision. Till now, the ULA used to purchase the russian-made spacecraft engines, but due to the US-Russia tension as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, US government trying, with all its efforts, to disconnect itself from the dependence on russian-made equipment.

The conflict of interests and the competition between the US Airforce and SpaceX over the program is an old story, but after the approvement of the deal, both the Air Force and SpaceX seemed ready to forget any bad blood.

Secretary of the Air Force, Deborah Lee James said in a statement. “Ultimately, leveraging of the commercial space market drives down cost to the American taxpayer and improves our military’s resiliency.” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said that “we thank the Air Force for its confidence in us and look forward to serving it well.”

SpaceX’s first opportunity to bid for a national security launch will come next month, when the Air Force requests proposals to launch its next-generation global positioning satellites.