The Air Force is assessing a new approach to national security space launches in an era of declining defense budgets.
The Air Force sought information from industry for its assessment in a May 29 request for information (RFI) listed in the Federal Register. Air Force spokesman Eric Badger said yesterday the objectives of the assessment are to identify future key decisions and the opportunities associated with potential policy changes, the emergence of new entrants and the long-term possibilities for science and technology (S&T) and research and development (R&D) opportunities.
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| One of ULA’s Atlas V rockets lifts a Navy MUOS satellite. Photo: Navy. |
The Air Force specifically requested the following information from responders:
* The near-term and long-term plans to offer launch services to the U.S. government;
* The critical issues that concern current and prospective launch service providers who intend to provide the capability to launch national security space payloads;
* Specific Defense Department policy recommendations that could improve national launch capabilities or aid industry in lowering the cost of space access;
* Aspects of future DoD launch service or systems acquisition that would contribute to industrial base stabilization.
Badger said while some version of the report will likely be made public upon its completion in September, that decision will be made when the assessment wraps up.
While Badger declined to provide how many companies responded and who responded, commercial satellite operator Intelsat General said it provided input to the Air Force. And while the Air Force says the assessment covers many launch topics, Intelsat General believes it is more focused on assessing commercial launch providers lifting government satellites into orbit, also known as “hosted payloads.”
Intelsat General said in a July 17 blog entry posted on its website that it is in a “uniquely qualified” position to comment because its space asset replacement missions are more numerous and more frequent than those of any other company. Intelsat General said it has been launching two to three satellites every year for the past 50 years.
Intelsat General said the United States needs to stoke further competition among launch providers if it is to fully embrace the advantages of hosted payloads, or carrying United States government payloads on commercial satellite spacecraft. Intelsat General said the domestic launch market has “never been more limited” with a single company, United Launch Alliance (ULA), owning the market for government satellite launches. ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].
Commercial satellite operators are usually forced to rely on European and Russian companies for their launches, Intelsat General said, because there is no flight-proven heavy-lift U.S. launch vehicle that can provide competitive launch pricing. Coupled with the recent explosion of a Russian heavy-lift Proton rocket, Intelsat General said those options seem to be decreasing.
“The space launch situation could become a major issue if the government decides to utilize more hosted payloads because they ride on commercial satellites which require competitive access to launches,” Intelsat General said in its blog post.
Representatives from Ball Aerospace [BLL] and Space Systems/Loral (SSL) both said their companies did not respond to the RFI.
The Air Force itself is trying to drive down the cost of national security space launches through competition in its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. DoD last November authorized the competition of 14 launch “cores” to companies other than ULA (Defense Daily, Dec. 12). Both Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) and Orbital Sciences [ORB] are trying to break into the EELV market.
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) told Defense Daily in December, though ULA is probably the best launch operation in the world, it’s also the most expensive and the United States can’t continue to move forward with such an expensive operation (Defense Daily, Dec. 6).
Other challenges facing potential competitors for government space launches include DoD subsidizing ULA’s national launch infrastructure. In a February 7 letter to congressional committees, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the Pentagon gives about $1 billion per year to ULA to support its national launch infrastructure and also provides funding for ongoing engine and other technology development.
Badger said while future EELV acquisition is one component, the assessment is focused on understanding broad strategic decisions.