WASHINGTON \u2015 The Space Force has approved California-based startups Impulse Space and Relativity Federal to join the pool of competitors for launching less critical, less complex national security payloads, Space Systems Command (SSC) announced today.<\/p>\n
The two additions to SSC\u2019s National Security Space Launch<\/a> Phase 3 Lane 1 program bring the total number of qualified launch providers to seven \u2015 joining Rocket Lab and Stoke Space, which were tapped last March<\/a>, as well as Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA), which were added to the pool of competitors in June 2024 [PDF<\/a>].<\/p>\n Lane 1 involves launches to easier-to-reach orbits, payloads with less mass, and missions that are not absolute must-gos, such as the Space Development Agency\u2019s data transport and missile tracking satellites, and those used by the Space Force Test Program.<\/p>\n The expansion of the Lane 1 program comes at a time when the US launch market is being roiled by SpaceX\u2019s move to cut off orders of commercial rideshares on its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket starting in late 2028, according to a report by Space News.<\/a> Falcon 9 went up 165 times in 2025,<\/a> accounting for about 85 percent of all US launches \u2014 both government and commercial \u2014 and is approved to fly both NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 missions and NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 <\/a>missions that carry must-succeed, high-value national security spacecraft.<\/p>\n The Space Force\u2019s continued expansion of Lane 1 likely has several drivers, according to Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n Those factors include the service\u2019s \u201cdesire to take advantage of new launch capabilities as they come online; a wariness about over dependence on SpaceX in general; and a concern that SpaceX seems to be pivoting away from its traditional launch business by retiring the Falcon 9 and moving on to Starship and AI data centers,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cEach of these factors would point toward expanding Lane 1 as prudent risk mitigation.\u201d<\/p>\n NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 is funded via an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract vehicle worth $5.6 billion through 2030. Like earlier inductees, Impulse Space and Relativity Federal \u2014 the government sales arm of Relativity Space \u2014 have been granted a first award of $5 million each \u201cto conduct an initial capabilities assessment and develop their approach to tailored mission assurance,\u201d the SSC press release said.<\/p>\n \u201cTailored mission assurance\u201d is a process designed to allow the Space Force to assess each Lane 1 company\u2019s capabilities and \u201cthe associated risks to the mission,\u201d the release explained.<\/p>\n Neither Impulse nor Relativity have yet launched any satellites. <\/p>\n Relativity expects a first launch of its Terran R reusable rocket late this year. <\/p>\n Impulse is developing a kick-stage \u2014 the specialized upper stage of a rocket that offers a final \u201ckick\u201d or boost to payloads \u2014 called Helios<\/a> that is designed to attach to any medium-lift rocket to enable heavier cargo lift to low Earth orbit. Helios could also provide a faster ride to farther out orbits. Impulse plans to fly the first Helios mission on a Falcon 9 in late 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a press release today, Impulse said the award marks the first time an \u201cupper-stage provider\u201d has been chosen to \u201cserve as a prime\u201d under the NSSL program.<\/p>\n Eric Romo, Impulse president and chief operating officer, explained that Helios will be paired \u201cwith a standard medium-lift launch vehicle\u201d to offer \u201ca more operationally flexible and cost-effective path to high-energy orbits than other solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2015 The Space Force has approved California-based startups Impulse Space and Relativity Federal to join the pool…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[13548,47451,76938,134082,79,193,11716,14931],"class_list":["post-751430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-falcon-9","tag-impulse-space","tag-national-security-space-launch","tag-relativity-space","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-force","tag-space-systems-command"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}