After a long point of tests , a court typeface , and tens of gazillion of dollars , SpaceXhas gain the right to launch governance planet into space . The secret space company , based in California , is possess by the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk .
“ This is a very important milestone for the Air Force and the Department of Defense,”saidAir Force SecretaryDeborah Lee James . “ SpaceX ’s emergence as a feasible commercial launch supplier provides the chance to vie launching services for the first time in almost a decade . at long last , leveraging of the commercial space marketplace drives down cost to the American taxpayer and improves our military ’s resilience . ”
Last twelvemonth , Musk sued theAir Forcefor the opportunity to compete with theUnited Launch Alliance(ULA ) to send Pentagon satellites into distance . The ULA , which is a joint undertaking betweenBoeingandLockheed Martin , has had a well-nigh exclusive monopoly on US military planet launches . That is , until now .
This news has n’t muffle the ULA ’s spirit . " We welcome today ’s announcement and look forward to vie with SpaceX and other new entrants , " ULAsaidin a statement .
In club to certify ( the Pentagon ’s cargo is crucial and expensive ) , SpaceX had to nail an exhaustive lean of demonstrations to prove their worth . Thisincluded : 3 flight of stairs demonstration of the Falcon 9 skyrocket , the verification of 160 payload interface requirements , 2,800 individual tasks , and 700 audit . All this certification required more than $ 60 million from the Air Force . It ’s paid off for SpaceX , though . It is the only ship’s company , other than ULA , to have certification to launch military satellites .
“ This is an important step toward bringing competition to National Security Space launch,”saidMusk . “ We thank the Air Force for its confidence in us and attend forward to serving it well . ”
SpaceX ’s first opportunity to bid for government work will be June 2015 . Lockheed have built some GPS artificial satellite and SpaceX might very well be the one to launch them .
[ figure viaFlickr ]
