The Verge By Loren Grush 2/12/2019
The inspector general won’t say why it’s happening nowThe inspector general for the Pentagon announced yesterday that it will be reviewing how exactly SpaceX’s rockets became certified to launch payloads for the US Air Force back in 2015, Bloomberg first reported. In a letter to Heather Wilson, the secretary of the Air Force, the inspector general, Michael Roark, wants to know if the certification process complied with the Air Force’s guidelines for certifying new launch vehicles.
The news comes nearly four years after SpaceX fought and won the ability to launch military satellites with its Falcon 9 rocket. Before this certification, the Air Force mostly relied on a sole company to launch its payloads into space: the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. But SpaceX also wanted the ability to bid for national security contracts, and the company sued the Air Force in 2014 for not allowing other providers to compete for a multi-year contract worth $11 billion.
More:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/12/18221880/spacex-dod-inspector-general-falcon-9-air-force-certification-audit
