GoKawiilThis week the US Space Force brought two more companies into the pool of bidders eligible to compete for its launch contracts—Impulse Space and Relativity Space. For a rocket company, cracking into the lucrative US military launch market is both a sign of maturity, as well as an important source of revenue.
The inclusion of Relativity Space, which is making credible progress toward the launch of its heavy-lift Terran R rocket, is perhaps not a huge surprise. Under the leadership of former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, the company has continued to work toward bringing the partly reusable rocket to the launch pad.
The addition of Impulse Space, however, was something of a surprise. The company specializes in building spacecraft for in-space operations, rather than launching from Earth.
“I think it’s fair to say that Phase 3 did not contemplate this,” said Eric Romo, president and chief operating officer of Impulse Space, in an interview. “However, the Space Force has been really clear that they’ve got a lot of demands for high-energy launch, especially at GEO, and they don’t have a lot of supply.”
How the competition works
Phase 3 refers to the third iteration of the military’s launch program, known as National Security Space Launch Phase 3. It allows companies to bid on “task orders” for launches between the period of 2025 and 2029. Launches typically take place one to three years after a contract is awarded. To further complicate things, there are two lanes of this program.
“Lane 2” is for more established rocket companies, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, to handle the military’s most valuable payloads. “Lane 1” was created to bring newer launch companies into the competition and allow them to bid for more “risk tolerant” missions. The military has set aside about 30 launches to be awarded to Lane 1 bidders, worth a total of about $5.6 billion.
Romo said Impulse Space has been speaking with the government about the possibility of joining Lane 1 for a couple of years, and said US military officers have shown a great willingness to be flexible in order to meet their launch needs, particularly to reach high-energy orbits such as geostationary space.