WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Space Force will save $53 million in launch expenses due to a contract modification with SpaceX, which will allow the company to reuse Falcon 9 first-stage boosters for future launches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c[The Space and Missile Systems Center\u2019s] SMC\u2019s commitment to innovative partnerships and working with the commercial sector while maintaining our mission assurance posture and mission-success record cannot be understated,\u201d said Walt Lauderdale, who serves as the center\u2019s Falcon systems and Operations Division chief as well as frequent mission director. \u201cI am proud of our partnership with SpaceX that allowed us to successfully negotiate contract modifications for the upcoming GPS III missions that will save taxpayers $52.7 million while maintaining our unprecedented record of success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the contract modification, the reused boosters will first be used to launch the fifth and sixth GPS III space vehicles, with the first of those launches to take place in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSpaceX is proud to leverage Falcon 9\u2032s flight-proven benefits and capabilities for national security space launch missions,\u201d said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX\u2019s president and chief operating officer, in a statement. \u201cWe appreciate the effort that the U.S. Space Force invested into the evaluation and are pleased that they see the benefits of the technology. Our extensive experience with reuse has allowed SpaceX to continually upgrade the fleet and save significant precious tax dollars on these launches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SpaceX first collaborated with the Space and Missile Systems Center to recover a booster from the third GPS III launch on June 30, 2020, and plans to recover a booster from the upcoming GPS III launch on Sept. 29. That launch will take place from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company has been recovering and reusing its boosters for commercial launches for some time now. According to SpaceX, it has recovered boosters from 53 launches and reused them in another 38 launches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe United States’ launch industry is the envy of the world,\u201d said Lt. Gen. John Thompson, commander of the Space Force\u2019s Space and Missile Systems Center. \u201cIndustry\u2019s innovation has been key to SMC\u2019s success over our 60+ year existence. I am thrilled to welcome SpaceX\u2019s innovative reuse into the National Security Space Launch program!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Space Force has issued SpaceX a contract modification that will allow the company to reuse boosters on upcoming GPS launches, resulting in savings of $53 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":56529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":23,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,163,36,23],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3385],"class_list":["post-25907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-military-space-report","category-newsletters","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"WRT2Y3CDA5FJ5KTD6HFNRGD7GM","arc_canonical_url":"\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2020\/09\/25\/starting-in-2021-spacex-can-reuse-boosters-for-space-force-launches\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n