Fwd: ULA makes $1B deal to sell 7 rockets

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: July 4, 2013 10:30:15 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: ULA makes $1B deal to sell 7 rockets

 

 

      Jul. 3, 2013 5:00 PM 

ULA makes $1B deal to sell 7 rockets

US Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office place orders for Atlas V, Delta IV models to haul payloads into orbit

Purchase Image

An Atlas V rocket lifts off from just south of the Canaveral National Seashore with a Space Based Infrared System satellite earlier this year. / CRAIG RUBADOUX/FLORIDA TODAY

Written by
Todd Halvorson
FLORIDA TODAY

What they ordered

The U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance office are buying:
• Four Atlas V rockets in two different launch configurations.
• Three Delta IV, each in a different launch configuration.
The price? $1 billion.

CAPE CANAVERAL — Seven United Launch Alliance Atlas V and Delta IV rockets are being ordered up under a new $1 billion deal to launch spacecraft for the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office.

The Air Force purchase is detailed in a recent Department of Defense contract announcement and includes money for four Atlas V rockets and three Delta IV rockets.

Production work on the launch vehicles is to be completed by 2015. Some $525 million of the purchase will come from Air Force 2013 Missile Procurement funds. The remainder presumably would come from the Air Force's 2014 budget.

The rockets include:

• An Air Force Atlas V rocket with a four-meter payload fairing and no solid rocket boosters.

• An Air Force Atlas V rocket with a five-meter payload fairing and no solid rocket boosters.

• An NRO Atlas V with a four-meter fairing and no solid rocket boosters.

• An NRO Atlas V with a five-meter fairing and four solid rocket boosters.

All four Atlas rockets will be equipped with single-engine Centaur upper stages.

The other rockets include:

• An Air Force Delta IV with a four-meter fairing and two solid rocket boosters.

• An Air Force Delta IV with a five-meter fairing and four solid rocket boosters.

• An NRO Delta IV with a five-meter fairing and two solid rocket boosters.

Rockets with five-meter fairings and solid rocket boosters typically carry larger spacecraft than those flown on rockets with four-meter fairings and either no or fewer solid rocket boosters.

The Launch Systems Directorate of Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles awarded the contract, which was a sole source acquisition.

United Launch Alliance is a joint-venture partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It has had a monopoly on Department of Defense Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) purchases since the companies merged the Atlas V and Delta IV rocket families.

SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., recently signed an agreement with the Air Force that puts the company on course to compete with United Launch Alliance for EELV contracts. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is being evaluated as part of an effort to certify it for EELV-class launches.

Contact Halvorson at thalvorson@floridatoday.com

 

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