Elon Musk’s SpaceX beats rivals to win $714 million Pentagon launch contract

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has come out ahead in the race for Pentagon contracts for launching missions. The new contract is valued at $714 million and runs till 2027.

SpaceX got the nod to launch five major missions out of seven, in support of the US Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 2 project. According to information released by the US Space Systems Command, SpaceX will help put classified payloads and communications satellites in orbit to bolster the US military's communication and surveillance efforts, in addition to handling reconnaissance missions.

SpaceX will handle three classified Space Force missions (USSF-155, USSF-149, and USSF-63). It will also launch the USF-206 flight, which will deliver the Boeing-built 12th Wideband Global Satcom (WGS-12) satellite. The contract is rounded off by the NROL-86 reconnaissance mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

The two other missions were picked up by rival United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. They are worth $428 million. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin missed out due to a lack of military certification for its New Glenn rocket.

SpaceX, however, expects to dominate the global rocket launch market even more. Musk stated that his company could account for more than 95 percent of the total Earth payload to orbit by weight once its upcoming Starship starts frequent flying. The massive multi-stage rocket is under development and testing at Starbase in Texas.