Space News by Sandra Erwin — September 30, 2019
The award covers the launch operations costs for five classified NRO missions — NROL-44, NROL-82, NROL-91, NROL-68 and NROL-70.The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center on Sept. 30 awarded United Launch Alliance a five-year $1.18 billion contract to complete the last planned five Delta 4 Heavy National Reconnaissance Office missions from 2020 through 2024.
The award covers the launch operations costs for five classified NRO missions — NROL-44, NROL-82, NROL-91, NROL-68 and NROL-70. The Air Force already had acquired five Delta 4 Heavy rockets for these missions under previous contracts awarded to ULA in 2017 and 2018.
Because Delta 4 Heavy launches take years to plan, the Air Force and the NRO divided the contract into two parts: Launch Vehicle Production Services (LVPS) and Launch Operations Support (LOPS). The $1.18 billion contract awarded Sept. 30 to ULA is for LOPS.
The Air Force had procured Delta 4 Heavy rockets for NROL-44 and NROL-82 in fiscal year 2017 under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Phase 1 Block Buy contract with ULA that officially ends Sept. 30, 2019. Both missions ran behind schedule and slipped to 2020, which pushed them beyond the Phase 1 contract’s period-of-performance and required the Air Force to award a separate LOPS contract.
More:
https://spacenews.com/air-force-awards-ula-1-18-billion-contract-to-complete-five-delta-4-heavy-nro-missions/
