Air Force Awards Launch Vehicle Development Contracts to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, ULA
October 10th, 2018Via: SpaceNews:
The U.S. Air Force announced on Wednesday it is awarding three contracts collectively worth about $2 billion to Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and United Launch Alliance to develop launch system prototypes.
The funding is for the development of competing launch system prototypes geared toward launching national security payloads. Each company will receive an initial award of $181 million, $109 million of which are identified in the announcement as fiscal year 2018 funds.
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Asked why SpaceX did not make the cut, Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisitions, said the company is an “important member of our launch team” and can choose to bid again in phase 2.
“Not getting LSA funds does not prevent them from competing,” Roper told reporters at a Pentagon news conference.
He did not confirm whether SpaceX in fact submitted a bid for this OTA. “We only talk about the awardees,” he said. “We think all three awardees are going to be highly competitive to getting us to launch capability that meets national security space requirements ahead of the congressionally mandated 2022 date to get off the Russian RD-180 engine.”
