The United States Space Force has ordered eight launches from United Launch Alliance and SpaceX.

Saturday, June 11, 2022 | Chimniii Desk

The United States Space Force recently authorised five military satellite launches from United Launch Alliance and three from SpaceX, totaling $846 million in funding for missions that will launch in the next two years.

The task orders keep the military's National Security Space Launch, or NSSL, missions split between ULA and SpaceX, as stipulated in the Pentagon's Phase 2 launch service contracts signed in 2020. ULA got 60 percent of the NSSL missions scheduled to launch during the next five years, while SpaceX won 40 percent.

ULA and SpaceX beat out Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman for the Phase 2 launch services contract, giving the two businesses the authority to launch the military's most vital and expensive national security satellites.

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According to the Space Force's Space Systems Command, the eight missions will be launched over the following two years using ULA's next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket and SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

The Pentagon's endeavour to restore competition into the military's launch procurements culminated in the Phase 2 launch service contracts. For more than a decade, until the Air Force certified SpaceX, ULA, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, was the military's lone launch source for major national security satellites.

Under the Phase 2 contracts with ULA and SpaceX, the Space Force, which took over the military's launch service procurements from the Air Force, grants launch task orders on a yearly basis.

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ULA was awarded five launches for $566 million as part of the 2022 awards announced last month. SpaceX's three Falcon 9 missions have task orders valued $280 million.

The following are the five ULA missions:

• The GPS 3-7 navigation satellite will be launched into a medium Earth transfer orbit by a Vulcan Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral.

• Three Vulcan Centaurs (codenamed USSF-16, USSF-23, and USSF-43) launch from Cape Canaveral with classified payloads.

• The Wideband Global SATCOM 11 communications satellite will be launched into a geosynchronous transfer orbit by a Vulcan Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral.

The three SpaceX missions are:

• A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral on the USSF-124 mission, delivering a payload to low Earth orbit for the Missile Defense Agency.

• The first Weather System Follow-on satellite was launched into polar orbit by a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the USSF-62 mission.

• A Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, transporting satellites for the Space Development Agency's Tranche 1 Transport Layer into polar orbit for the first time.

While SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has launched 157 times, ULA's Vulcan Centaur has yet to fly. The Vulcan Centaur rocket is being developed by ULA to replace the Atlas and Delta launcher families, which are set to be retired.

Col. Chad Melone, chief of the launch procurement and integration division at Space Systems Command, said, "We work closely with our launch service providers and mission partners to guarantee launch capability exists to transport our essential payloads to orbit on-time and without failure." "ULA and SpaceX both have extremely capable launch systems, and we are confident that they will meet our requirements for the eight flights we ordered today."

In a statement, Brig. Gen. Stephen Purdy, SSC's programme executive officer for assured access to space, said, "Now, more than ever, we must do everything in our ability to ensure each national security space launch is successful." "In the short term, it's the greatest way to keep ahead of our competitors." We're launching the nation's 'eyes and ears,' as well as secure communications, GPS, and space awareness, to give our warfighters and national decision-makers the knowledge they need to safeguard our country and allies."

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