The commercial Space Race is in full swing as a new challenger arrives. A company by the name of Orbital ATK will soon be acquired by Northrop Grumman for 7.8 billion dollars, giving them a decided advantage that could get their foot in the door alongside competitors Space X and United Launch Alliance (a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin) for a series of lucrative space contracts.
The merger will give Orbital access to a significant operations, manufacturing, and supply chain infrastructure. According to the company this will allow the company "to offer full scale solutions across the small and large government satellite market, leverage to the commercial market and expansion into the launch services market."
The reason this is significant is because the Air Force plans on awarding three launch contracts for next gen rockets under its in July to three companies. Based on performance the Air Force will then make a final decision in 2020, choosing two companies to compete for 28 missions over the course of five years. Likely, the potential earnings are in the billions.
So far, the only companies poised to receive these contracts are Orbital ATK, Space X, ULA, and Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos' company - though they aren't really a frontrunner at this point in time). Space X is all but certain to be one of the companies to snag one of the two coveted top spots. So what's really happening here is that, though the media is trying to sell it as a potential competitor to Space X, it's a far cry from that - especially considering that, by all accounts, Orbital's tech is not in the same league as Space X's (i.e. re-launchable vehicles, durability, price), it's real competitor is ULA.
But that doesn't make for as good a headline.
Honestly, it's pretty unlikely that Orbital will get its foot in the door with this round of contracts. Space X has cutting edge technology at dog cheap prices (well, for space tech, anyway) and ULA is the legacy beast, once the only company to receive space contracts in the U.S. and with long-standing good 'ole boys relationship with the government and military. Likely the Air Force will leverage the company to keep Space X and ULA on their game, and Orbital will compete for the contracts more for publicity than anything else.
In other news, Space X is done testing its Block 5 version of Falcon 9 in Texas and plans on a test launch in early May. This is huge news, as this is Space X's first vehicle that meets NASA's standards for crewed missions. Moreover, the Block 5 version of the rocket has been streamlined for better durability and shorter refurbishment time between missions. This will allow Space X to increase its mission load substantially.
It's an exciting time for space enthusiasts!
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