U.S. Passes Over SpaceX For Some Spy Satellites -- WSJ
August 10 2016 - 03:03AM
Dow Jones News
By Andy Pasztor
Despite efforts to foster competition for launching Pentagon
spacecraft, senior Air Force and intelligence officials aren't
ready to put their biggest, most advanced spy satellites into orbit
on top of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.'s rockets.
With the heavy-lift Falcon variant not expected to be certified
for military missions until 2017 at the earliest, Pentagon brass
have opted for the familiar, though substantially more expensive,
option of continuing to put such satellites on proven rockets built
by the incumbent rival to SpaceX, as the Southern California
company is called.
That is the upshot of the U.S. military's decision to move
toward awarding a pair of sole-source launch contracts to United
Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed
Martin Corp.
United Launch builds heavy-lift Delta IV rockets that have been
the mainstay of the Pentagon's National Reconnaissance Office, in
addition to other boosters for smaller payloads. Announced last
week, the decision covers spy-satellite launches slated between
2020 and 2023.
Closely held SpaceX, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon
Musk, in the past has pushed hard to be able to compete for
Pentagon launches across the board, even filing suit against the
Air Force two years ago to protest being shut out of such business.
The litigation was dropped after Pentagon officials pledged to open
up competition for future launch contracts.
Earlier this year, SpaceX won the first launch under the terms
of that settlement: an $82-million contract to blast a Global
Positioning System satellite into orbit in 2018.
But SpaceX currently doesn't have a variant of its rocket
already approved by the Air Force to carry the NRO's most expensive
flagship satellites, which can cost $1 billion or more. And
according to industry officials, NRO officials privately have
played down the prospect that SpaceX will get any such launches
through the middle of the next decade.
According to some industry estimates, the overall cost of
launching a spy satellite on the most powerful Delta IV variant can
exceed $550 million.
Development of the SpaceX's rival booster, called the Falcon
Heavy, is years behind schedule. It isn't slated to make its
initial launch until later this year.
The company's response to last week's announcement, however,
could signal the beginning of a different, less combative
relationship with the Pentagon. Instead of complaining that the
Falcon Heavy should remain in the mix for at least the spy-
satellite launch targeted for 2023, SpaceX signaled it won't
protest the Air Force's decision. A spokesman said "we worked
closely" with Pentagon and Air Force officials "on this action and
decided it was the right approach."
One possible reason for SpaceX's approach may be that its
manifest already is full for the next few years, and NRO officials
are renowned for objecting to launch schedule slips.
In its announcement, the Air Force said it chose Delta IVs due
to the timing and complexity of integrating the satellites with the
rockets. The service also said United Launch is "currently the only
responsible source" to blast those particular payloads into
orbit.
Previously, Air Force officials provided industry with strategy
documents indicating the military didn't anticipate "full and open
competition" between United Launch and SpaceX to begin until 2023.
Also, Claire Leon, the Air Force's top rocket-acquisition official,
told an industry conference in May that SpaceX was certified to
place satellites into only some of the various orbits around the
Earth used by the U.S. military.
For United Launch, which has slashed staff and is scrambling to
cut costs further at the same time it develops a new engine for its
workhorse Atlas V booster, the Pentagon's move seems to assure it
will have business to keep heavy-lift Delta IV's flying well into
the next decade. The joint venture previously stressed it intends
to keep those versions of the Delta IV flying as long as the
Pentagon wants to use them.
Corrections & Amplifications: Space Exploration Technologies
Corp.'s most-powerful rocket is the Falcon Heavy. An earlier
version of this article incorrectly used an older name for the
rocket: Falcon 9 Heavy.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 10, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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