For the first time since 2006, a private enterprise space company is about to travel into military missions, as SpaceX becomes certified to provide services to the US Air Force. Prior to now, the partnership of Lockheed Martin-Boeing has held a monopoly on things like the launch of spy satellites, but next month in June, SpaceX will get a chance to launch the GPS III satellite.
As SpaceX becomes certified, it is the first commercial space mission launch provider in practically ten years. Having a commercial source of space travel will help lower the cost of space travel in the future.
SpaceX Becomes Certified in a Two Year Process
SpaceX and the US Air Force are calling the partnership a milestone and it culminates two years of work to get SpaceX the needed certification via the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.
The partnership started in January with an announcement about the EELV, which they hope will aid in the improvement of the competitive process and also attain missions guaranteed for SpaceX to be involved in future national security space launches.
SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket to Provide Services for USAF
As SpaceX becomes certified, they are now eligible for other military space missions, which could be valued at $70 billion dollars by 2030, says Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James. SpaceX has spent time testing and evaluating their Falcon 9 rocket. They estimate they can provide launch travel missions for a mere $100 million dollars or less, which is a major savings.
The new partnership between SpaceX and the USAF will also help relieve the dependence for using the Russian RD-180 engines on their Atlas-5 rockets. The U.S. government forbade using the Russian engines for military space missions travel after 2019 due to Russia annexing Crimea in 2014.
SpaceX Could Become Head Launch Mission Company
Now that SpaceX becomes certified, they have a great advantage over everyone else to grow into the chief space travel company for the USAF after 2019. That is because besides the end of working with the Russians by then, Lockheed Martin-Boeing won’t have certified their Vulcan rocket until 2022 and the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, hopes their Falcon heavy rocket will get approval by 2017.
Musk said that as SpaceX becomes certified he thanks the USAF for having confidence in SpaceX, and the company will continue to compete for future military space travel missions.
