US Space Force Awards $87.5 Million To Rocket Lab, SpaceX, Blue Origin, ULA for Next-gen Rocket Testing

The U.S. Space Force, the military branch spun out of the Air Force in December 2019, has announced its next batch of awards for projects related to next-gen rocket engine testing and upper stage improvements. From a report: The awards were granted by the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), a program managed by the Space Force's Space Systems Command. SpEC facilitates engagement between the U.S. Department and Defense and the space industry, by allowing its nearly 600 members to compete for contracts. The awards, which total $87.5 million, were granted to four launch companies:

I got MINE!

[Ostracus]

Well at least we don't have to worry about any lawsuits derailing things.

Re:

[fahrbot-bot]

They each got theirs for themselves. TFA notes that each company got an award to further develop their *own* technologies:

• Blue Origin, which will receive $24.3 million to develop cryogenic fluid management for the upper stage of the New Glenn rocket.
• United Launch Alliance, which will get $24.3 million for uplink command and control for its new Vulcan Centaur two-stage heavy-lift rocket.
• Rocket Lab, whose contract award is also $24.3 million, one of the highest in the company’s history. Those funds will go toward upper-stage development of the company’s forthcoming Neutron medium-lift rocket.
• SpaceX, which will get $14.4 million for combustion stability analysis and testing of its Raptor rocket engine.

... so "next-gen rocket testing" is a bit misleading:

Is that even enough to cover fuel costs?

[bobstreo]

$87.5 Million is probably less than it costs for a launch from any of these companies.

Re:Is that even enough to cover fuel costs?

[epiphani]

Fuel costs are so incredibly tiny - like we're talking less than $500k for a falcon heavy. Rocketlab's stick launches for $5m, and negotiated re-flying a used falcon 9 places a flight around $50m without any exceptional costs.

While this is still a small amount of money on an SLS scale, $87.5m would get your satellite to space on a falcon 9, or probably half a dozen launches on Rocketlab's.

It won't get you to orbit on either ULA or Blue Origin though - as ULA costs too much, and Blue Origin doesn't have an Orbit-capable rocket.

Re:Is that even enough to cover fuel costs?

[nightflameauto]

Yeah, I really have to wonder about awarding Blue Origin anything for attempting to get "next gen" rock launches going when they haven't even managed to put together a contender for the current gen. That had to be a "cover our ass because we'd like this to not be tied up in court for the foreseeable future" payment.

Re:

[stanbrown]

Unfortunately ULA seems to have committed their (medium term) future to Blue Origin BE-4 engines, and since they are methane/LOX cycle, there does not appear to be a way to back out of this, or am I missing an option?

Re:

[michael_cain]

Exactly. ULA has bet most of their future on the billion-dollar-per-launch moon shot, and on the BE-4. They're about one successful high-profile SpaceX Starship mission away from being in serious trouble.

Re:

[pi_rules]

The BE-3 engine on New Shephard has some decent tech behind it. Being hydrolox means they've got experience handling and containing hydrogen, which is kind of difficult. When it comes to lunar missions hydrolox can be made on the lunar surface (has yet to be done of course) whereas methalox not so much. We can make that on Mars but not Luna.

The throttling of BE-3 is good too; good research lunar landers.

Hydrolox is something SpaceX isn't touching at all.

Let me guess...

[BAReFO0t]

They get to reap all the benefits, own all the patents, don't have to give anything back, and will make massive profits off the taxpayer's back. ... Why do I hear oinking?

Re:

[cusco]

Most disgusting to me is that they're on track to exceed NASA's budget around 2024-2025.

Why Blue Origin?

[RitchCraft]

Why is tax-payer money being given to Blue Origin? Bozos needs to use his own money to prove they can actually achieve orbit. Once that's done then Blue Origin can enter the big boy club. I don't see Virgin Galactic getting any sort of funding which in nothing more than what Blue Origin is doing. I don't want Bozos to be part of human kind's space history. He's done enough damage already.

Re:

[nightflameauto]

Bezos would tie up the entire project in lawsuit after lawsuit if they don't give him some pitty cash. Why the courts don't just laugh him out of existence when he sues to get government money for a vanity project that can't even reach escape velocity, nor reach any form of orbit, is completely beyond me.

Re:

[HanzoSpam]

Maybe this is a bribe to get him to stop suing SpaceX so they can finally get on with developing their lander.

Re:

[sconeu]

Maybe it's because of the BE-4 engines?

Re:

[Darinbob]

What, you think rich people got rich by using their own money?

Re:

[RitchCraft]

Musk did it. I have a lot of respect for someone that is willing to put all their money on the line to achieve a goal. Musk damn near lost it all proving SpaceX could achieve its goal. If that fourth rocket had failed he would have been bankrupt. He earned the right to get tax payer money from NASA to help further their mission. Bozos, nope, I don't want to fund a joy-riding machine.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

"No phallus left behind", that's why.

(yes, I'm being sarcastic).

Because it worked well last time

[Ronin441]

NASA paid $396 million to SpaceX (in a series of chunks) to develop Falcon 9 and Cargo Dragon. This investment paid handsomely, saving them a lot compared to what they would have paid for equivalent services from existing providers. They similarly invested in Crew Dragon, and will similarly win from that investment. So I expect they're thinking, hey, let's try that same trick again, see what happens. source [arstechnica.com]

Re:

[RitchCraft]

Yes, but didn't SpaceX prove their orbital rocket design with their own money before NASA stepped in? As far as I can tell Bezos simply built the world's largest model rocket. His engine design has not been proven in actual space.

Re:

[BranMan]

I noticed they were missing - but it wouldn't be Virgin Galactic, but Virgin Orbit (that's their launch company).

Aerospikes?

[Ungrounded Lightning]

I wonder if any of this might be used to work on aerospike engines. (Seems unlikely.)

Details

[Areyoukiddingme]

For those too Slashdot to click through, the awards are $24.3 each to Blue Origin, ULA, and RocketLab, and $14.4 million to SpaceX.

Funny how SpaceX always gets the least from these contracts, while doing the most by far. Yusaku Maezawa's money is going a long long way. And will go the farthest*, eventually. Pun intended.

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* From Earth with humans on board. No warranty expressed or implied. Passengers may or may not be caught in a solar storm and awarded super powers (because that's how radiation works).