SpaceX officially joins the U.S. Department of Defense. Elon Musk’s company will launch military vehicles into orbit
SpaceX is due to officially start collaborating with the U.S. Department of Defense, as the company owned by Elon Musk will launch a highly classified platform into orbit in August, Bloomberg reports.
SpaceX and the U.S. Department of Defense have previously collaborated in May, when the company owned by Elon Musk launched a satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. Things are getting a higher stake now, as SpaceX will be launching in August one of the Pentagon’s premiere yet highly classified platforms, the X-37B spy craft.
One of the leading causes that made the Pentagon consider collaborating with SpaceX is the fact that its launches cost $61 million, compared to United Launch Alliance (ULA). Although ULA, a joint venture of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., has collaborated with the Department of Defense on over 100 launches, the cost of a single launch is yet to drop under $100 millions.
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In response to the decision of the Pentagon, ULA’s president and chief executive, Salvatore “Tory” Bruno tweeted that his company wasn’t given a chance to compete for the launch of the X-37B, although it wanted to. Moreover, officials argue that the comparison of the costs between the two companies should not be done so easily, as ULA provides redundant platforms and various other launch systems to the Department of Defense, something that its rivals do not do.
Elon Musk has even more ambitious plans for SpaceX. Besides being a military contractor and having resupply missions at NASA on the International Space Station, Elon Musk wants to fly actual astronauts to the ISS next year, and also announced in February the flight of two private tourists around the Moon in 2018, without disclosing further details.
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