Space News by Sandra Erwin — December 16, 2018
The Air Force will need time to review SpaceX’s performance as it executes EELV launches before it would consider flying military payloads on reusable rockets.
WASHINGTON — SpaceX in its first national security launch for the U.S. Air Force will not attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. The Block 5 version of the vehicle scheduled to lift a GPS 3 satellite on Dec. 18 is an expendable rocket with no legs or grid fins.
The Air Force decided that only an expendable rocket could meet “mission performance requirements,†said Walter Lauderdale, mission director of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Launch Enterprise Systems Directorate.
A number of factors led to this decision, including the mission trajectory and payload weight. “There simply was not performance reserved to meet our requirements and allow them, for this mission, to bring the first stage back,†Lauderdale said Dec. 14 in a conference call with reporters.
Lauderdale during the call mentioned the word “uncertainty†several times to underscore the Air Force’s thinking about reusable rockets and about working with a new launch provider.
The GPS 3 launch will mark SpaceX’s debut as a military contractor under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. The company won an $82.7 million contract in 2016 for the first GPS 3 mission, which had been originally scheduled for May 2018 but was delayed for additional testing of the Block 5 rocket. SpaceX’s entry into the EELV program marked a significant transition for the Air Force after a decade of working exclusively with United Launch Alliance. For this particular launch, ULA did not submit a bid. SpaceX won a second GPS 3 launch contract in 2017 for $96.3 million. Earlier this year, it scored a $290 million deal for three additional GPS launches.
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https://spacenews.com/air-force-open-to-reusable-rockets-but-spacex-must-first-demonstrate-performance/