The United States Air Force has announced that it has awarded a $96.5 million contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX for launching GPS III satellite. SpaceX beat the rival United Launch Alliance—a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.—to win the contract.
This is the second contract awarded by the Air Force to SpaceX for launch of GPS satellite. ULA had not submitted a bid for the first GPS launch contract that Air Force awarded to SpaceX for $83 million in April 2016. The contract won by SpaceX covers production of Falcon 9 rocket, mission integration, spaceflight certification, and launch operations.
The launch of GPS II satellite is scheduled to take place in February 2019.
In 2015, SpaceX broke ULA’s monopoly by winning the certification from the U.S. Air Force to compete for national security and military space 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, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, in a statement.
“SpaceX is proud to have been selected to support this important national security space mission,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, in a written statement.
“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.”
ULA however doesn’t seem to be very much happy with SpaceX getting the contract. The company says the tract record of reliability and success rate of the bidder should be a stronger factor during evaluation of the bid for missions like GPS III launches that are technically complex missions.
“Over the past decade, ULA has provided unmatched reliability with 100 percent mission success and ensured more than 115 satellites were delivered safely to their orbits each and every time,” ULA’s statement said.
“We look forward to continuing to provide the best value launch services to enable our customers’ critical missions.”
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