By Julian E. Barnes And Doug Cameron
The Pentagon will announce plans next week to open more space
rocket launches to competition, paving the way for Elon Musk's
SpaceX to try to win its first military business, according to U.S.
officials familiar with the plan.
The Air Force plans to add additional launches of new global
positioning satellites in coming years to create competition to the
joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., known
as the United Launch Alliance, which dominates existing military
satellite launch missions.
Defense officials on Thursday said there are new initiatives to
increase competition in space launches and new money for programs
that protect satellites from cyberattacks within the military space
budget proposal to be announced Monday by the Obama
administration.
Officials wouldn't detail how much additional money is being put
into either the effort to increase GPS satellite launches or
cyberdefenses. Overall, the Pentagon proposes to spend $7.1 billion
on military space operations, down slightly from the current fiscal
year space budget of $7.4 billion, according to budget documents
reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. That spending doesn't include
money for NASA's budget.
The spending plan approved by Congress late last year included
launches for two additional GPS launches, one this year and one in
2016 or 2017. The new plan will further increase the launches, part
of an effort by the Pentagon to try to create new military
satellite launches that can be bid on by SpaceX and can help build
up competition.
The Pentagon previously had halved the number of potential
launch competitions to seven after some satellites lasted longer
than expected and didn't need to be replaced.
U.S. officials said the new budget will attempt to patch
relations with SpaceX, as well as provide funding to help develop
an American made rocket engine to take the place of the Russian
made engine used on some ULA missions.
"The Air Force is taking steps to promote the development of two
commercially-viable, domestically-sourced space launch service
providers with the objective of eliminating reliance on a
foreign-made liquid rocket engine," the document reviewed by the
Journal said.
SpaceX and ULA didn't immediately offer a comment.
SpaceX sparred last year with the Air Force over what it saw as
an unfair deal that gave the bulk of its sensitive satellite launch
business to the venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The
venture has held a monopoly on sensitive launches through a
multiyear deal worth around $11 billion.
SpaceX originally had proposed to bid on new GPS rocket launches
in 2012, according to court documents but lacked the required
certification.
The Pentagon had hoped to have a competition last year to launch
a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates
the nation's spy satellites, but delays in certifying SpaceX for
military work sunk that plan. ULA this week secured the NRO
contract.
But SpaceX last week reached a settlement with the Air Force,
dropping a lawsuit that sought to break up the ULA contract and
charting a path to secure certification. The Pentagon had hoped to
clear SpaceX to compete for rocket deals by the end of 2014, but
this has slipped to later this year.
Write to Julian E. Barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com and Doug
Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
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