A mass simulator version of the New Glenn rocket will be tested in November 2021.
blue origin
The Pentagon announced the first winners of a rocket launch contract lottery on Thursday, with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin winning the bid for the first time.
Blue Origin’s winning bid is part of a contract award for the Pentagon’s $5.6 billion national security space launch program.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX and United Launch Alliance – also known as ULA, are Lockheed Martin and boeing company – Also awarded a contract as part of the multi-year third phase of the NSSL program.
Blue Origin, SpaceX and ULA did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
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Under the plan, known as NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1, the three companies will be eligible to compete for contracts by mid-2029.
ULA and SpaceX were already vying for contracts under the previous Phase 2 version of NSSL: Overall, over the five-year Phase 2 launch order, the military assigned ULA 26 missions worth $3.1 billion, while SpaceX Acquired 22 missions worth $2.5 billion.
Blue origin also Northrop Grumman CorporationWhen the Pentagon selected ULA and SpaceX to participate in the program in August 2020, it missed the second phase.
On January 15, 2023, a Falcon Heavy rocket launched the USSF-67 mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation
But in the third phase, the U.S. military is upping the ante and broadening the scope of the competition for Space Force mission contracts. The third phase is expected to have a total of 90 rocket launch orders, with separate categories for Track 1 and Track 2 to allow more companies to participate in bidding.
Space Force outlines “mutual fund” strategy for buying launches from companies during Phase 3: The military branch split the program into two routes to allow three companies to complete the most demanding and expensive missions; Finish.
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