EELV

SpaceX and ULA Offer Competing Views in Senate Hearing

SpaceX and ULA Offer Competing Views in Senate Hearing

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee held a sub-committee hearing this morning to examine changes taking place in the Department of Defense Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program (EELV.) Prior to today’s hearing, the GAO released a report regarding cost accounting in the EELV program, and like a number of prior reports it leaves the clear impression […]

Posted in: EELV
ULA Investigated for Anti Trust Violations

ULA Investigated for Anti Trust Violations

What was already likely to not be a very happy week at United Launch Alliance just got a whole lot worse. Only a day after SpaceX entered into an agreement with the Air Force to begin the process of qualifying its boosters for EELV business,  Reuters is reporting that the Federal Trade Commission is opening an […]

Update: Delta IV Set to Launch

Update: Delta IV Set to Launch

Update: Following a scrub on Thursday due a problem with helium pressurization, the launch of the Delta IV carrying SatCom 5 has been reset for 8:37 p.m. EDT this evening. Original: After a stand down dating back to October 4th , a United Launch Alliance (Boeing) Delta IV is prepared to return to flight this […]

Atlas V Boosts GPS IIF Satellite to Orbit

Atlas V Boosts GPS IIF Satellite to Orbit

At 5:38 PM Wednesday evening, a United Launch Alliance  Atlas V rocket launched the latest Global Positioning Satellite into orbit, augmenting the space based system which has become almost inextricably entwined in daily life.   Following check out in orbit,  the GPS IIF-4 will become the 31st operational spacecraft currently in the system.   With most GPS satellites significantly exceeding their […]

Posted in: EELV
SpaceX Nears EELV Certification Plan

SpaceX Nears EELV Certification Plan

  Aviation Week is reporting that SpaceX and the U.S. Air Force are “days away” from finalizing details for a certification plan which would allow the company to compete for national security launches aboard its Falcon 9 V1.1 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles.  Having already won two launch orders under the Air Force’s separate Orbital/Suborbital-3  (OPS-3)  program, which […]

Counting the Costs of EELV

Counting the Costs of EELV

The GAO has released its annual Defense Acquisitions Assessment of Selected Weapons Programs report(PDF), and as usual, it portrays a defense establishment which seems to confirm President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s  worst predictions.  Among the gems where defense space programs are concerned, here are the winners, with the growth in current estimated total acquisition cost versus the original program estimates. […]

And the Dam Begins to Break, SpaceX Awarded First EELV Class Launches

And the Dam Begins to Break, SpaceX Awarded First EELV Class Launches

Following up on yesterday’s surprise announcement  in Space News that the Air Force was setting aside 14 EELV class launch opportunities for competitive bidding starting in 2015, Aviation Week is reporting that a separate but related Air Force launch procurement effort, the Orbital/Suborbital (OSP-3) is making its first two awards to SpaceX.  The OSP program is functioning both […]

EELV Update : A Split Decision and a New Beginning

EELV Update : A Split Decision and a New Beginning

Note: This replaces a prior post to reflect new information Space News is reporting that the Pentagon has decided to break the United Launch Alliance  EELV monopoly, and open up the program to competition. Under the new plan, the Air Force is authorized to proceed with a block buy of “up to” 36 launch cores from current monopoly vendor United Launch Alliance, […]

Posted in: EELV
USAF Shelves Reusable Booster Program

USAF Shelves Reusable Booster Program

Spacenews is reporting that in the wake of a critical report by the National Research Council, the United States Air Force is cancelling its Reusable Booster Program, citing budget concerns. The program sought to develop a horizontally launched, partially reusable booster which would be powered by a staged combustion kerosene/oxygen engine.  The winged booster would have carried an […]

Delta IV Board Convened

Delta IV Board Convened

One day, two boards. Three days before the SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, undergoing a widely publicized failure on first stage engine number 1,  a United Launch Alliance Boeing Delta IV  lifted from its adjacent pad, and following a nominal first stage burn, experienced lower than expected performance by the Pratt and Whitney […]

Posted in: EELV
π