After Vulcan slips, Space Force ends up awarding more missions to SpaceX

Enlarge / A Falcon Heavy rocket launches the USSF-67 mission for the US Space Force in January 2023. (credit: SpaceX)

The US Space Force this week awarded a massive round of launch contracts to two companies to carry its national security satellites and other payloads into orbit over the next several years.

As part of this package, United Launch Alliance (ULA) received 11 launch contracts worth a total of $1.30 billion, and SpaceX got 10 missions worth $1.23 billion. These values include the cost of launch services, mission integration, and "mission success" incentives. The ULA launches will all occur on the company's new Vulcan rocket, while seven of the 10 SpaceX missions will fly on the Falcon 9, and three will fly on the company's larger Falcon Heavy booster.

One of the main intrigues in national security launch is whether the ongoing delays of the Vulcan rocket—which was originally due to launch in 2020—would impact the share of launches ULA received from the government. And based on the latest data, this appears to have happened. Instead of receiving an anticipated 60 percent of launch orders from 2019 to 2023, ULA has only received 54 percent from the military. This amounts to three fewer launches, or a lost value of about $350 million.