The U.S. government announced that it has awarded SpaceX (of Elon Musk) and United Launch Alliance (ULA) contracts for the launch of national security missions in the United States. In addition, these companies outbid Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin (of Jeff Bezos).
USAF Application
The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has awarded the United Launch Alliance (ULA) and SpaceX approximately $653 million in contracts, which will focus on creating units for the military takeoff created by the program that relies on the launch capacity for the next generation of the Pentagon.
Launch Contracts
The SpaceX and ULA companies have won a major contract with the USAF for the military launch of national security satellites, which is considered to prepare them for a lucrative market. The contracts have been agreed for launch services as of the year 2022, according to what has been commented the air force has assigned close to 337 million dollars to ULA, which is a company linked between Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp; on the other hand, they have given 316 million dollars to SpaceX to carry out the first missions of a total of 34, both companies will support until the year 2027.
The contracts given to both companies are part of a mandate given in 2014 to Congress at the Pentagon, and with this, they seek to continue to curb their dependence on Russian-developed rockets and thus achieve the transition to U.S.-made rockets. They hope to be able to launch loads of great use to national security and give greater support to Washington from space.
ULA
ULA will receive a contract for approximately 60% of those launch service orders using its next-generation Vulcan rocket, while SpaceX, using its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, will receive approximately 40%, said Will Roper, head of Air Force procurement.
SpaceX
The company SpaceX had previous agreements with the U.S. government due to the launch of the Dragon Demo 2 a few months ago, after this could be considered that they gained confidence with the air force and managed to get such a contract to develop next-generation rockets.
ULA and SpaceX fleet
Currently, ULA and SpaceX are looking to continue creating new rockets that meet the needs of the USAF, however, already have a fleet to display and optimize in order to start testing these missions, in the case of SpaceX has a fleet of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, also currently testing the Starship, on the other hand, ULA is building its rocket called Vulcan to supply its old fleet of rockets called Atlas and Delta.
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