The Defense Department extended a policy permitting government agencies to use excess ballistic missile (XBM) assets to launch a payload into orbit on a case-by-case basis.
Directive-Type Memorandum (DTM) 11-008, dated July 5, 2011, provides four conditions that government agencies must meet to launch payloads into space via XBMs:
* It is cheaper for the government to use XBMs when compared to the cost of acquiring space transportation services from domestic commercial providers;
* The payload being launched supports the sponsoring agency’s mission and the modified XBM asset meets all mission requirements, including performance, schedule and risk requirements;
* The use of such XBM is consistent with United States obligations under treaties and other international agreements in accordance with DoD Directive 2060.1 (Reference (d));
* The defense secretary approves the use of such missile.
DoD spokeswoman Air Force Lt. Col. Monica Matoush confirmed in April that DoD intended to extend the DTM, which originally expired May 9. DoD on April 25 extended the XBM DTM until Jan. 3, 2014.
The DTM also says acquisition of space launch services using converted XBM assets shall ensure required competition at the prime and subcontract level necessary to sustain and enhance the U.S. space launch industry base and limit the impact on the domestic space transportation industry.
Frank Slazer, vice president of space systems for the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) trade group, said in an April 3 email that the use of XBM assets has depressed the market for new launch vehicles, with comparatively little in the way of cost savings for the government. Slazer said this is because used ICBM stages are often expensive to store, monitor, fix or modify and integrate into launch vehicles.
Air Force spokesman Maj. Eric Badger said DoD uses several criteria when deciding to employ XBM assets in a space launch, including sufficient cost savings when compared to commercial space transportation, meeting all mission requirements of the using agency and consistence with international obligations.
Badger said each use of XBM assets for launch is certified to the appropriate congressional committees in accordance with the law. Use of XBMs shall be certified to the House Armed Services and Science Committees and the Senate Armed Services and Commerce, Science and Transportation Committees at least 30 days before the planned conversion.
Badger said the most recent XBM certification took place Dec. 16, 2010, when the Air Force certified the use of Minotaur launch vehicles on NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) and the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) Rapid Pathfinder to the mentioned committees. The Minotaur launch vehicle, developed by Orbital Sciences [ORB], uses XBM assets. Orbital did not respond to requests for comment.
Orbital’s Minotaur I rocket is a four-stage solid fuel space launch vehicle utilizing Minuteman ICBM rocket motors for its first and second stages, reusing motors that have been decommissioned as a result of arms reduction treaties, according to the company’s website. Minotaur I is capable of launching payloads up to 1,278 pounds into low-Earth orbit (LEO).
Minotaur IV utilizes three government-furnished solid rocket motors from decommissioned Peacekeeper ICBMs and a commercial solid rocket upper stage to launch payloads up to 3,814 pounds into low-Earth orbit. Minotaur V combines three government-supplied Peacekeeper motors with two commercial upper stages to launch small spacecraft into high-energy trajectories for geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) and lunar missions.
An industry source said reliability can be a concern with XBMs as they are typically older and XBMs were seen as a way to launch cheap satellites when the program was started. But as the price of satellites increased over the years to the range of hundreds of millions of dollars, the source said, that brought pause to those thinking about saving money by using XBMs to launch increasingly expensive satellites.
Philip Coyle, who spent 2010 and 2011 as associate director for national security and international affairs with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), told Defense Daily he didn’t see anything wrong with using XBM assets for space launch.
“I can’t imagine using up some old rocket motors is putting the defense industrial base in jeopardy,” said Coyle, who also spent over six years as assistant secretary of defense and director, operational test and evaluation (DOT&E) from 1994 to 2001.
Orbital says it has a 100 percent track record with Minotaur launch vehicles: 13 space launch missions, eight target vehicles and two suborbital technology validation missions. The last Minotaur launch took place Sept. 27, 2011, when a Minotaur IV+ successfully launched the TacSat-4 Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) satellite communications spacecraft into space.
The United States first deployed LGM-30 Minuteman III ICBMs in 1970 and stopped producing them in 1978, according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). Production of the LGM-118A Peacekeeper ICBM started in 1984.
Badger said the Air Force’s domestic customers for solid rocket motor development are ATK [ATK] and Aerojet, a GenCorp [GY] company. ATK spokeswoman Trina Helquist declined comment while Aerojet did not respond to a request for comment.