After a series of aborted launches due to adverse weather conditions, SpaceX finally gets a breath of fresh air with the Pentagon contract.
The Elon Musk-owned firm will take over its first $149-million missile tracking deal with the US government agency. This confirmation of this comes from the country’s Space Development Agency on Monday.
Since 2015, the aerospace manufacturer heads a series of satellite launches for Starlink. Under the contract, the Starlink assembly plant headquartered in Redmond, Washington, will serve another purpose of building four satellites. These will incorporate a wide-angled, missile-tracking sensor sourced from a third-party supplier.
The venture targets to generate funding for the firm’s interplanetary goals in longer-term prospects.
The award is part of the US agency’s initiative to procure technologies for detecting and tracking missiles. Particularly those challenging to track and intercept.
One famous example of this is the intercontinental ballistic missile termed as ICBM. It known for its ability to travel long distances with difficulty tracking.
In 2019, SpaceX secured $28 million from the US Air Force to use the Starlink satellite network to test encrypted internet services with military planes.
Similarly, in August this year, the Falcon 9 maker won against other modern technology giants. Namely, Northrop Gruman and the Bezos-owned Blue Origin over the military’s billion-worth national security missions.
The new success exhibits the agency’s confidence in the space transportation company, strengthened further with the Crew Dragon’s victory in July.
Along with Musk’s contract, technology company L3 Harris Technologies Inc. received a $193 million deal to build the other four satellites.
Both firms are expecting to finish production by the fall of 2022.
NASA’s Confidence in Falcon 9
After the historic crewed spacecraft launch to the ISS, SpaceX’s aerospace industry’s position instantaneously lifted to sky-high.
Since then, the firm was awarded government-funded space ventures, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The agency’s shift away from Russian manufacturers led them to consider homegrown technologies that the Hawthorne, California-based company creates.
In fact, recently, NASA chose the Falcon 9 rocket to launch its mission targeted to study the protective bubble around the solar system.
Under the $109.4 million deal, SpaceX will launch the International Mapping and Acceleration Probe for NASA. Aim of the project is to help researchers better understand the magnetic barrier surrounding the solar system.
Along with the good initiative is a series of backlash over failed launches of Starlink mission brought by adverse weather conditions.
Space enthusiasts went as far as to call the untimely incident as “Scrubtember”. This being a portmanteau of scrub and September to show their frustration over the missed opportunities.
After a series of cancellations just days after the month’s start, the term “Scrubtober” emerged.
This marks the fifth time that the launch was put on hold in the past three weeks. Furthermore, on Friday, the firm had to cancel the launch of a GPS satellite of the US Space Force for the fourth time in a row.
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