SpaceX beats ULA for GPS satellite launch
SpaceX has beaten United Launch Alliance in the companies' first direct competition for a launch of a national security satellite.
The Air Force on Tuesday said it has awarded SpaceX a $96.5 million contract to launch a Global Positioning System III satellite from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon 9 rocket in February 2019.
"SpaceX is proud to have been selected to support this important national security space mission," said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and chief operating officer. "We appreciate the confidence that the U.S. Air Force has placed in our company and we look forward to working together towards the successful launch of another GPS-III mission."
SpaceX last year won an $82.7 million contract to launch a GPS III satellite in 2018.
The Air Force had intended for that mission to be the first opened to competition in roughly a decade. But ULA, the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture formed in 2006 that was the only company certified to launch such missions with its Atlas and Delta rockets, decided not to submit a bid.
The Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, which buys rockets for national security launches, said the recent competition met its goals for more affordable launches.
"The competitive award of the GPS III launch services contract to SpaceX directly supports SMC’s mission of delivering resilient and affordable space capabilities to our nation," said Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, the SMC commander at Los Angeles Air Force Base, in a statement.
ULA on Tuesday repeated its argument that evaluations of the bids for the GPS missions and others open to competition — a group of missions the government refers to as Phase 1A — placed too much emphasis on price, and should give more consideration to bidders' ability to launch successfully and on time.
"United Launch Alliance continues to believe a best value launch service competition with evaluation of mission success and assurance, and past performance including demonstrated schedule reliability, is appropriate and needed for Phase 1A missions given the technical complexities of rocket launch services and their critical significance to the war fighter and U.S. national security," said spokeswoman Jessica Rye. "We look forward to continuing to provide the best value launch services to enable our customers’ critical missions."
The bids were submitted weeks after a SpaceX Falcon 9 exploded on its launch pad during a test on Sept. 1, 2016, destroying the rocket and a commercial satellite and severely damaging Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
That mishap followed a Falcon 9 rocket's in-flight failure during a June 2015 launch of International Space Station supplies.
ULA is preparing to launch a military communications satellite from Cape Canaveral this Saturday evening on a Delta IV rocket.
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