By Sean Kennedy
The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program was charged with launching satellites into orbit on behalf of the country’s national security agencies. When the program was created in 1994, contracts were awarded to Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which combined in 2006 to form the United Launch Alliance (ULA). The ULA was the sole U.S. provider of launch services from 2006 until 2015.
Despite the lack of competition in the EELV program, the Department of Defense (DOD) maintained a burdensome certification process that effectively barred new participants from bidding. In April 2014, SpaceX, which developed a partially reusable launch vehicle that considerably cut costs, sued the Air Force to open the bidding process. The lawsuit was dropped in 2015 when the Air Force adopted an expedited certification process enabling the company to bid on launches. For the first time in more than 15 years, the Air Force held a competition for launch services and subsequently awarded SpaceX a contract in April 2016.
SpaceX and ULA then split the contract for the second phase of launches, and the EELV was renamed the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program in the fiscal year (FY) 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), reflecting the incorporation of reusable and expendable launch vehicles. The increase in competition and the inclusion of more efficient technology has saved the government $7 billion to date.
Beyond saving money, broadening participation has enabled the NSSL to continue its mission, as SpaceX is currently the only company able to undertake missions. The ULA ran into trouble when the FY 2017 NDAA limited its use of Russian-made RD-180 heavy lift engines, necessitating the development of a new launch system using only domestic components. After a string of delays, that replacement, the Vulcan Centaur, was supposed to launch for the first time in May 2023, but more glitches spurred a delay until January 2024. The program is already two years behind schedule, and its first ULA NSSL mission will not occur until the second half of 2024 at the earliest.
The Space Force, now in charge of the NSSL, is set to take another positive step to expand competition with its October 2023 announcement that NSSL Phase 3 will create two “lanes” for bidders. Lane 1 will reduce the barriers to entry by thinning the certification process and is designed to incorporate current and future commercial launch providers. Lane 2 will be reserved for more challenging missions and will likely end up going to established NSSL participants.
Innovative technologies developed in the private sector in recent years have drastically reduced the cost of launching satellites, and telecommunications companies have taken full advantage. At the end of 2022, there were 6,718 satellites in orbit, an increase of 2,000 over one year. Since 2020, the number in orbit has jumped by 30 percent each year.
The new flexible NSSL guidance will enable the government to benefit from this aerospace boom. It seems set to take the opportunity: the DOD had estimated that there would be 36 NSSL Phase 2 launches and expects 90 Phase 3 missions.
Expanding access to the NSSL program represents a rare procurement triumph for the federal government. The new model of contracting out launch services as opposed to paying private firms to develop the necessary technology has proven its worth and should be relied upon not just at the Pentagon, but across all agencies when pursuing ventures in space.
In particular, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) could stand to benefit by further adopting this fee-for-service model, as opposed to paying to develop launch platforms that it thereafter owns and operates. The ballooning costs and near-decade long delay of NASA’s Space Launch System for the Artemis program keenly demonstrate the shortcomings of the old model.
Private firms operating under contract with the federal government have formed the new backbone of space commercialization and exploration. The technologies developed in the past decade mean that the next decade will provide more cost-effective access to space and far greater potential for exploration. The Space Force should be applauded for increasing the NSSL participation base, and the federal government at large should continue to reposition itself to take advantage of this new era of aerospace innovation.
The WasteWatcher is the staff blog of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) and the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW).
