Photo credit: SpaceX

Aerospace companies SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance (ULA) have landed big respective contracts to launch satellites into orbit for the U.S. government through this year to 2024. The contract, in particular, is the second phase of the US National Security Space Launch program, which assures access to space for U.S. government payloads. The ULA is receiving 60% of the specified contracts while SpaceX takes on the remaining 40%. Already, the U.S. Department of Defense has awarded $316 million to SpaceX and $337 million to ULA “to meet fiscal year 2022 launch dates” [implying the first half of the stipulated contracts], according to a press statement.

“This was an extremely tough decision and I appreciate the hard work industry completed to adapt their commercial launch systems to affordably and reliably meet our more stressing national security requirements,” Colonel Robert Bongiovi, director of the U.S. Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Enterprise, said in a press statement. “I look forward to working with ULA and SpaceX as we progress towards our first Phase 2 launches.”

SpaceX and ULA bid for the contracts alongside aerospace rivals Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman, but the other two were apparently passed over by the U.S. Department of Defense.