GoKawiilIt seems as though $5.6 billion wasn’t enough. That was the news from the US Space Force on Friday, when military officials announced they were tripling the maximum value of one of the service’s National Security Space Launch contracts to $17 billion.
The expansion of the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 contract comes as the Pentagon signals rising demand for military satellite launches. The NSSL program is set up to allow Space Systems Command, which oversees the Space Force’s launch program, to select from a pool of launch providers for individual missions to deliver the military’s satellites to orbit.
The NSSL program has two parts. Lane 1 covers the Space Force’s more risk-tolerant missions, such as medium-lift launches with experimental payloads or rideshare missions carrying satellites for the Pentagon’s surveillance or data relay constellations. Lane 2 includes higher-priority strategic missions, like the government’s largest and most expensive spy satellites, or radiation-hardened communications satellites designed to survive a nuclear war.
Lane 1 is open to commercial launch providers without requiring extensive certification and oversight from the Space Force. This is the part the Pentagon has now authorized for $17 billion in launch procurement expenses. Missions in Lane 2 can only launch on rockets that go through the military’s lengthy certification reviews. Only SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket are certified for Lane 2 missions.
More money for more launches
There are more launch companies qualified for Lane 1 contracts. Space Systems Command originally selected SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin for Lane 1 in the Phase 3 round of the NSSL program in 2024. Rocket Lab, Stoke Space, and most recently, Relativity Space and Impulse Space were added to the roster of companies competing to launch Lane 1 missions. The Space Force issues a request for bids on a number of Lane 1 missions each year, and then doles out individual fixed-price “task orders” to the winners. SpaceX has won the lion’s share of Lane 1 task orders to date, and Blue Origin won its first earlier this year.