Elon Musk has faced an uphill battle trying to obtain the right to launch Air Force projects, but he won. And won big.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX will send the X-37B into orbit this August, taking the prestigious position from the famus Atlas V built by United Launch Alliance.
U.S Airforce X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission 4 via Reuters
Usually, projects like this are announced a long time before the fact, so why the secrecy and why the short notice from the Air Force?
In short: no one knows. It’s been speculated that the space-plane will be actually a drone used for top-secret reconnaissance and even anti-satellite purposes.
According to Reuters, launch contracts are usually announced about two years before a flight but the Air Force did not disclose the X-37B contract until Tuesday.
The bigger question though is why the Air Force picked Elon Musk and SpaceX to handle this project. Boeing is the prime contractor on the X37-N. United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, launched the four X-37B missions. More than that, Atlas V has a perfect track record and well, SpaceX doesn’t.
In any case, this marks the third SpaceX mission for the Air Force. The other two are GPS satellites that will be launched in 2018 (the earliest) and are valued at $83 million and $96 million, respectively.
All of this is a signal that Elon Musk’s efforts are paying off. SpaceX is gaining ground to become a reputable contractor for the US Government. Let’s see what the future has in store, because the skeptics are plenty.
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