SpaceX
On Friday, the US space force said it would launch two critical global positioning system missions on the Falcon 9 rocket used next year.
Doing so would save soldiers 52 52 million, officials said, as SpaceX agreed to reduce the cost of flying hardware for both missions. This marks an important step by the space force to justify the use of the first stages of a rocket for critical national security missions.
“We are looking forward to this trip with SpaceX as we are getting more experienced and reusable hardware with them,” he told reporters.
SpaceX first launched a GPS mission for the US Army (GPS III-01) in late 2018 and then in June this year (GPS III-03). The rocket company is going to launch these navigation satellites (GPS III-04) as soon as possible on Wednesday, September 30. These flights were or will be flown on new rockets.
Now, Space Force and SpaceX have agreed on a modification agreement that will allow the launch of two more GPS III missions (05 and 06) on the reusable Falcon 9 first-stage rocket. This was supported by the fact that the Space Force agreed to allow the GPS III satellite to be launched in a separate spacecraft. This change came after the launch of the first GPS III in 2018, when no phase recovery was attempted.
Due to this change, SpaceX was able to recover the first phase of the Falcon 9, which was flown on a GPS mission in June, and the company will retrieve the booster on future GPS missions. In return, SpaceX agreed to need some more spacecraft for future missions – and saved million 52 million for the US government.
As part of these missions, the Space Force plans to better understand the working life of a Falcon 9 booster to enable future re-use of the rocket. “SMC’s innovative partnership and our commitment to the business sector cannot be underestimated,” Lauderdale said.
SpaceX welcomes US government accommodation
“SpaceX is proud to take advantage of Falcon 9’s flight-proven benefits and capabilities for national security space launch missions,” said Gavin Shotwell, President and CEO of SpaceX. Said in a statement. “We appreciate the efforts of the US Space Force in evaluating and are pleased to see the benefits of this technology. Our extensive experience with reuse has allowed SpaceX to constantly upgrade its fleet and save significant valuable tax dollars on these launches. “
