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Following a tanking test in February, Blue Origin is preparing for the debut launch of the partly reusable New Glenn rocket this year.
It took four years and a lawsuit for SpaceX to break United Launch Alliance’s monopoly on delivering the U.S. military’s most important and expensive spacecraft into orbit. A decade later, the vendor pool is expanding again, with a third contender invited to bid on national security space launches—and a half-dozen more companies waiting in the wings.
Blue Origin joined incumbents United Launch Alliance (ULA) and SpaceX in winning the opening round of the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 program. The company, solely owned by Jeff Bezos, will become eligible to compete for a pool of missions worth a combined $5.6 billion once it achieves a successful flight of its first orbital launch vehicle, New Glenn.
- No midsize launchers make Lane 1 first cut
- Lane 2 awards are expected this fall
- The program is expected to include 79 missions overall
The Space Force selected the companies for a multiple-award, firm, fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, covering a minimum of 30 launches between 2024 and 2029, with an option to extend the agreement to 2034.
In Phase 3, the service introduced a dual-lane acquisition strategy, dividing prospective missions and vendors into two pools. Lane 1 missions, which are open to launch providers with just one proven flight, can accept a higher risk of failure and include lighter-weight payloads going to less challenging orbits. Lane 2 is a direct follow-on to the ongoing Phase 2 program, serviced by ULA and SpaceX, with launch vehicle certification requirements and the ability to fulfill the full range of NSSL mission profiles.
After reviewing seven proposals, the Space Force on June 13 announced it had chosen ULA, SpaceX and Blue Origin as the initial vendor pool for Lane 1 missions. The same three companies—and only those three—also plan to offer launch services for the larger and more technically demanding Lane 2 missions. Launch providers were invited to submit bids for both lanes.
“As we anticipated, the pool of awardees [in Lane 1] is small this year because many companies are still maturing their launch capabilities,” Space Force Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program executive officer for Assured Access to Space, stated in a June 13 press release. “Our strategy accounted for this by allowing on-ramp opportunities every year, and we expect increasing competition and diversity as new providers and systems complete development.”
The Space Force plans to reopen the Lane 1 solicitation annually to attract new launch service providers to the program; the next opportunity is coming in the fall of 2025. The government may order Lane 1 missions individually or in blocks, with task orders for launch services to be competed annually among all IDIQ awardees.
Blue Origin’s invitation to bid on Lane 1 missions comes with a large prerequisite: a successful launch of the company’s first orbital-class rocket, New Glenn. “We’re readying the vehicle as we speak and preparing to fly later this year,” Blue Origin wrote in an email to Aviation Week.
The partly reusable rocket is due to be hot-fired this summer at Blue Origin’s Cape Canaveral SFS launchpad. The barge that will serve as the landing pad for the New Glenn reusable first stage is nearly complete and is expected to arrive this summer, the company added.
Building on experience operating its reusable New Shepard suborbital launch system—flown 25 times since it debuted April 2015—Blue Origin plans to land the New Glenn rockets from the first flight. The company also supplies engines for ULA’s heavy-lift Vulcan rocket, which had a successful first flight on Jan. 8. A successful New Glenn launch would not only position Blue Origin to bid for Lane 1 missions, but also would count toward certification requirements for the larger, more lucrative Lane 2 program.
In addition to Blue Origin, SpaceX and ULA, the Space Force received Lane 1 proposals from Rocket Lab, Stoke Space and two other companies. Rocket Lab bid its in-development Neutron medium-lift reusable launcher, while Stoke Space offered Nova rocket flights. However, to qualify for this year’s competition, launch vehicles either had to have flown or needed a “credible plan” to achieve first launch by Dec. 15, the Space Force said.
That put Rocket Lab outside of the qualification window, as the first Neutron launch is scheduled for mid-2025, said Morgan Connaughton, the company’s vice president of communications. “Next year, there will be another opportunity to on-ramp,” she told Aviation Week. A spokesperson for Stoke Space also confirmed plans to recompete Nova in the next Lane 1 cycle.
While only three bidders met the Lane 1 requirements this year, the pool of eligible contenders could expand significantly in 2025. In addition to Rocket Lab and Stoke Space, ABL Space Systems, Astra, Firefly Aerospace, Northrop Grumman and Relativity Space told Aviation Week they plan to submit bids to on-ramp their vehicles as soon as they are ready.
“The U.S. Space Force is absolutely interested in increasing resiliency through diversity of launch providers and systems,” the service wrote in an email to Aviation Week. “That is one of the main objectives of our NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 strategy because having a robust and diverse domestic launch base increases competition, innovation and resiliency. We have a growing commercial launch market, and Lane 1 is designed to tap into that market and onboard new launch providers or systems every year as they are ready.”
Meanwhile, the next batch of Phase 3 contracts is expected this fall, when the Space Force is to select up to three vendors to handle launch services for about 49 Lane 2 missions throughout the five-year program. The companies selected for Lane 2 must meet full mission assurance with Space Systems Command-certified, high-performance launch vehicles and the ability to reach more stressing orbits.
With 79 launches expected in Phase 3, the Defense Department is making good on decisions taken over a decade ago to open to competition what was then known as the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.
In 2013, the U.S. Air Force reintroduced competition into the EELV program for the first time since 1998, with a new acquisition strategy to award launches to qualified bidders beginning in fiscal 2015. That decision ended ULA’s run as the sole provider of U.S. national security launch services from 2006 to 2015.
After declaring SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle capable of meeting national security space launch requirements, the Space Force in 2016 awarded the company its first firm, fixed-price, competitive contract for launch services. SpaceX had sued the Air Force in April 2014 to stop the awarding of an $11 billion sole-source EELV contract to ULA. The suit was settled, with the service agreeing to put more missions up for competitive bidding.
The EELV program was officially renamed the National Security Space Launch program in the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, reflecting the introduction of SpaceX’s partly reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. That same year, the Space Force awarded Phase 2 contracts to ULA and SpaceX to support NSSL missions scheduled for launch in fiscal 2022-27, with ULA allotted 60% and the rest earmarked for SpaceX.
Beginning in 2020, geopolitical issues and an increasingly price-conscious competitive environment spurred the Pentagon to reconsider its NSSL acquisition strategy for continued, assured access to space.
As U.S.-Russian relations soured following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, Congress passed legislation banning future use of Russian-built engines on military space launch missions. The sanctions were the beginning of the end for ULA’s workhorse Atlas V rockets, which are powered by imported Russian RD-180 engines.
Meanwhile, ULA’s Delta IV rockets, which did not use Russian engines, quickly became economically unviable once SpaceX’s cut-rate Falcon Heavy entered the market. ULA flew its last Delta IV Heavy in April and expects to retire the Atlas booster after 16 more missions. Vulcan boosters are replacing both rocket lines.
Phase 3’s novel dual-lane approach is the latest in a series of experimental launch service acquisition strategies by the Space Force, alongside the Orbital Services Program meant to task small launch vehicle providers to carry experimental and prototype missions to low Earth orbit. In 2020, the nascent Space Force began to explore alternative acquisition mechanisms, such as awarding four Space Enterprise Consortium prototype project agreements to incentivize industry innovation and development of launch systems capabilities.
The Phase 3 Lane 1 award includes task orders for each successful bidder to conduct an initial capabilities assessment and to explain how they will approach the program’s tiered mission assurance structure. As a new provider, Blue Origin will receive $5 million, while incumbent Space X and ULA receive $1.5 million each, since the Space Force already understands the latter companies’ launch systems and approaches to mission assurance.
In conjunction with the Lane 1 IDIQ awards, ULA, SpaceX and Blue Origin were invited to bid for two task orders: seven launches for the Space Force’s Space Development Agency and one for the National Reconnaissance Office. Blue Origin’s bid, however, will only be accepted if New Glenn flies before proposals are due.
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