{"id":81912,"date":"2012-12-06T19:58:30","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T11:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-wins-first-two-air-force-contracts\/"},"modified":"2012-12-06T19:58:30","modified_gmt":"2012-12-06T11:58:30","slug":"spacex-wins-first-two-air-force-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-wins-first-two-air-force-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Wins First Two Air Force Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tags: Air Force, Satellite Launch, SpaceX<\/p>\n

Publication Date: 12\/05\/2012<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\nSpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket at the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, before liftoff to send the Dragon capsule to the ISS.<\/i>
\nImage credit: SpaceX\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The U.S. Air Force<\/strong> has awarded two contracts to SpaceX<\/strong> in the latest move to foster competition in the country\u2019s launch market. <\/p>\n

Using its Falcon 9 v1.1, the company will take NASA\u2019s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) into orbit in November 2014. The second contract will require SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 Heavy to boost a Space Test Program satellite in September 2015, according to Air Force officials. <\/p>\n

SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 is currently in development; it is expected to be ready after next spring. The Falcon 9 Heavy will be operational in 2014. Approximately $100 million have been allocated for the missions and an extra $162 million will likely be assigned within the next few days. <\/p>\n

In addition to SpaceX, Orbital Sciences<\/strong> is a top competitor for the larger satellite launches that will be announced, according to officials. Orbital\u2019s first Antares launch is scheduled for the first quarter of 2013 for NASA<\/strong>\u2019s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. <\/p>\n

Orbital Sciences is also competing for the smaller satellite launches together with Lockheed Martin<\/strong>. Orbital counts with its Minotaur family of rockets and Lockheed with its new Athena boosters.<\/p>\n

In total, the Air Force has a budget of up to $900 million to allocate in contracts for approximately 12 launches.<\/p>\n

\n\"\" Full story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tags: Air Force, Satellite Launch, SpaceX Publication Date: 12\/05\/2012 SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket at the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, before liftoff to send the Dragon capsule to the ISS. Image credit: SpaceX The U.S. Air Force has awarded two contracts to SpaceX in the latest move to foster competition in the country\u2019s launch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}