The U.S. Space Force has some exciting news: they’ve chosen SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) for an important task. These two companies will be responsible for 21 rocket launches, and the contracts for these missions are worth a total of about $2.5 billion.
Who Gets What
Let’s break it down: ULA will be in charge of 11 missions, and the value of these missions is a whopping $1.3 billion. On the other hand, SpaceX will handle 10 missions, and these are valued at $1.23 billion. That’s a lot of money involved in sending things to space!
What’s Going to Happen
These exciting missions are all scheduled to take off within the next two to three years. ULA will be using its brand-new Vulcan rocket for 11 of these missions. Meanwhile, SpaceX is splitting its missions between its Falcon 9 rocket and the larger Falcon Heavy rocket.
Why SpaceX Got More
Originally, the plan was to have 34 missions for this project, known as the National Security Space Launch Phase 2. At first, Space Force mentioned that 60% of the missions would go to ULA, and the rest would be handled by SpaceX. However, they decided to change their plans because they saw that SpaceX was ready to go with its rockets. They believed it was a great idea to give SpaceX even more missions than they initially thought.
Space Force understands the importance of sending important stuff into space as soon as it’s ready. They don’t want to wait around, and SpaceX’s rockets are all set and ready.
The Next Phase
But here’s the exciting part: Space Force isn’t stopping here. They’re preparing for Phase 3, where they plan to purchase approximately 90 more launches. That’s a whole bunch of space missions! The winners of these missions will be announced next October.
So, SpaceX and ULA have their work cut out for them. They’re going to be quite busy sending rockets into space for the Space Force. It’s a big job, but they’re more than ready for the challenge!