Space Force raises the stakes in NSSL race for military launches
The U.S. military is raising the stakes — and widening the field — on a high-profile competition for Space Force mission contracts.
The Space Force plans to buy even more rocket launches from companies in the coming years than previously expected, granting more companies a chance at securing billions in potential contracts.
"This is a huge deal," Col. Doug Pentecost, the deputy program executive officer of the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command, told reporters during a briefing this week.
Earlier this year the Space Force kicked off the process to buy five years' worth of launches, under a lucrative program known as National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3. Now it's boosting the scale.
The U.S. sees a rising impetus to improve its military capabilities in space, spurring the need to almost triple the number of launches in Phase 3 that it bought in Phase 2 in 2020.
"That just blows my mind," Pentecost said. "We had only estimated 36 missions in Phase 2. For Phase 3, we're estimating 90 missions."
In February, Space Force outlined a "mutual fund" strategy to buying launches from companies. It split NSSL Phase 3 into two groups. Lane 1 is the new approach, with lower requirements and a more flexible bidding process that allows companies to compete as rockets debut over the coming years. Lane 2 represents the existing approach, with the Space Force planning to select a set number of companies for missions that meet the most demanding requirements.
Pentecost said Space Force hosted an industry day in February to go over the program's details and had 22 companies show up. Since then, Space Force made a number of adjustments to Phase 3. It has added more missions, introduced a price cap, expanded Lane 2, and has set an annual schedule for mission assignments.
The government weighs bids by a company's "Total Evaluated Price" per launch. That's split into "Launch Service," meaning how much it costs to build and launch a rocket, and the "Launch Service Support," which covers special requirements the military may have for launch. The Launch Service Support amount is capped at $100 million per year per company.
"We implemented some cost-constraining tools so that we don't balloon. We don't want [a situation where] everybody gets a mission — you get a mission, you get a mission, you get a mission — because then there's no real competition," Pentecost said.
"We do think that all of our industry partners want to be the number one guy, so we think that will provide competitive pricing to keep our costs down," Pentecost added.
Source: CNBC
