Satellite | The Contracting Education Academy

April 24, 2018 By cs

Military will award $10 million to the company that can launch satellites on short notice

U.S. military leaders are bullish about small satellites as tools to spy on adversaries and provide secure communications, but there’s just one problem: There isn’t a good way to get them into space, on demand.

Inspired by NASA’s partnerships with rocket makers like SpaceX, the Pentagon is turning to private industry, as half a dozen companies, most backed by venture capitalists, are working to launch small satellites more cheaply than ever to meet the demands of a growing number of small-satellite startups.

“There’s already a lot of commercial money going into development for these boosters,” Todd Master, a program manager at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency told Quartz at the Space Symposium, a conference bringing together space companies and government officials in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “But nobody is asking them to be much more responsive. Our discussions with them are: Could you go faster? Could you go from anywhere? And they’re like, ‘Yeah, but nobody is asking us to do that.’”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/04/us-military-will-award-10-million-company-can-launch-satellites-short-notice/147588

March 27, 2018 By cs

Air Force divides new launch contracts between SpaceX, ULA

SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have split up to $645 million in new contracts to deploy U.S. Air Force navigation and surveillance satellites into orbit from 2019 through 2021.

A Falcon 9 rocket built and operated by SpaceX will launch the Air Force’s fourth new-generation GPS 3-series navigation satellite in late 2019. The Air Force and SpaceX also secured options for two additional GPS satellite launches in 2020 and 2021, raising the total potential value of the contract to nearly $290.6 million.

Two United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets will loft the Air Force’s AFSPC-12 and AFSPC-8 missions, both destined for deployment in circular geosynchronous orbits more than 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the equator. The AFSPC-8 and AFSPC-12 missions are scheduled for launch in 2020.

The contracts for the two Atlas 5 launches are valued at $354.8 million. A ULA spokesperson said the company is not currently releasing which Atlas 5 configurations — the size of the payload fairing and number of solid rocket boosters — will launch the two missions.

Keep reading this article at: https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/03/20/u-s-air-force-divides-new-launch-contracts-between-spacex-ula/

March 29, 2016 By cs

Pentagon opens investigation into contracts with ULA

The internal watchdog for the U.S. Dept. of Defense (DoD) has opened a probe into whether the Pentagon’s contracts with United Launch Alliance (ULA) were properly awarded after a former ULA executive implied the government rigged a recent procurement in favor of the company.

Atlas 5 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral with a U.S. Navy communications satellite in January 2015. Photo credit: ULA — **Atlas 5 rocket launch of a U.S. Navy communications satellite from Cape Canaveral in January 2015.** Photo credit: United Launch Alliance.

The investigation inside the Pentagon is the latest twist in one of the space industry’s leading storylines in recent years — the contentious rivalry between ULA, the sole launch services provider for the U.S. government for nearly a decade, and newcomer SpaceX led by billionaire tycoon Elon Musk.

DoD’s inspector general is looking into assertions made by Brett Tobey, ULA’s former vice president of engineering, during a March 15 seminar at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Tobey discussed ULA’s decision last year not to bid in a head-to-head competition with SpaceX for the launch of a Global Positioning System navigation satellite. At the time, ULA said it did not submit a proposal for the launch due to restrictions on the use of Russian engines on the Atlas 5 rocket and because it lacked accounting systems required in the structure of the Air Force’s request for bids.

Keep reading this article at: http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/03/24/pentagon-opens-investigation-into-contracts-with-ula/

November 5, 2013 By cs

DISA keeps Iridium satellite access with $438 million in new contracts

Military and other federal users will continue to have access over the next five years to the Iridium satellite constellation, which supports handheld phones, through a set of contracts worth $438 million that the Defense Information Systems Agency signed with the company in October.

DISA awarded Iridium a $400 million airtime contract on Oct. 18 and on Tuesday signed a $38 million deal with the company to for maintenance and support of the DISA-owned satellite gateway located on Wahiawa, Honolulu, Hawaii and first turned on in 1998.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2013/10/disa-keeps-iridium-satellite-access-438-million-new-contracts/72524

U.S. military leaders are bullish about small satellites as tools to spy on adversaries and provide secure communications, but there’s just one problem: There isn’t a good way to get them into space, on demand.

SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have split up to $645 million in new contracts to deploy U.S. Air Force navigation and surveillance satellites into orbit from 2019 through 2021.

The internal watchdog for the U.S. Dept. of Defense (DoD) has opened a probe into whether the Pentagon’s contracts with United Launch Alliance (ULA) were properly awarded after a former ULA executive implied the government rigged a recent procurement in favor of the company.

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