After years of lobbying, protests and bidding, Jeff Bezos’s area firm is now a army launch contractor.
The US House Power introduced Thursday that Blue Origin will compete with United Launch Alliance and SpaceX for not less than 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 House Power will make this yr because the army seeks to foster extra competitors amongst its roster of launch suppliers, and scale back its reliance on only one or two firms.
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 House Launch (NSSL) program is in control of choosing contractors to ship army surveillance, navigation, and communications satellites into orbit.
Over the subsequent 5 years, the House Power desires to faucet into new launch capabilities from rising area firms. This procurement strategy for this new spherical of contracts, often called NSSL Part 3, is completely different from the way in which the army beforehand purchased launch companies. As an alternative of grouping all nationwide safety launches into one monolithic contract, the House Power is dividing them into two classifications: Lane 1 and Lane 2.
The House Power’s contract introduced Thursday was for Lane 1, which is for much less demanding missions to low-Earth orbit. These missions embody smaller tech demos, experiments, and launches for the army’s new constellation of missile monitoring and knowledge relay satellites, an effort that may finally embody lots of or 1000’s of spacecraft managed by the Pentagon’s House Improvement Company.
This fall, the House Power 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 massive, heavy spacecraft weighing many tons and typically needing to go to orbits 1000’s of miles from Earth. The House Power would require Lane 2 contractors to undergo a extra in depth certification course of than required in Lane 1.
“Right this moment marks the start of this progressive, dual-lane strategy to launch service acquisition, whereby Lane 1 serves our commercial-like missions that may settle for extra threat and Lane 2 supplies 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 Power for area acquisition and integration.
Assembly the standards
The House Power obtained seven bids for Lane 1, however solely three firms met the standards to affix the army’s roster of launch suppliers. The fundamental requirement to win a Lane 1 contract was for an organization to point out their rocket can place not less than 15,000 kilos of payload mass into low-Earth orbit, both on a single flight or over a collection 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 House Techniques Command stated SpaceX proposed utilizing their Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, and ULA supplied 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 firms are nonetheless maturing their launch capabilities,” stated Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program govt officer for the House Power’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 House Power 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, akin to Rocket Lab, Relativity House, Firefly Aerospace, and Stoke House, may have the possibility 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 reap the benefits of rising launch capabilities as quickly as they grow to be obtainable, based on Calvelli.
In an announcement, Panzenhagen stated having further launch suppliers will enhance the House Power’s “resiliency” in a time of accelerating competitors between the US, Russia, and China in orbit. “Launching extra risk-tolerant satellites on doubtlessly 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, can even ship decrease launch costs to the House Power. SpaceX and Blue Origin rockets are partially reusable, whereas ULA finally plans to get better and reuse Vulcan primary engines.
Over the subsequent 5 years, House Techniques Command will dole out fixed-price “process orders” to ULA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin for teams of Lane 1 missions. The primary batch of missions up for awards in Lane 1 embody seven launches for the House Improvement Company’s missile monitoring mega-constellation, and a process 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 not less than one profitable orbital launch to win a Lane 1 process order, and Blue Origin’s New Glenn does not but fulfill this requirement.
The House Power 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 comparable assessments.
ULA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin are additionally the highest contenders to win Lane 2 contracts later this yr. As a way to compete in Lane 2, a launch supplier should present it has a plan for its rockets to satisfy the House Power’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 throughout the attain of Blue Origin.
