{"id":778741,"date":"2026-07-22T22:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/778741\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T22:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:59:11","slug":"extra-11-billion-to-fund-huge-leap-in-space-force-launches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/778741\/","title":{"rendered":"Extra $11 billion to fund huge leap in Space Force launches"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Space Force\u2019s move to increase the contract ceiling for less complex, less critical launches by $11.4 billion<\/a> will cover an additional 110 launches, raising the total number of expected missions to 170 over the next decade, according to a Space Systems Command (SSC) spokesperson.<\/p>\n

The Space Force on July 17 announced<\/a> the tripling of its original $5.6 billion ceiling for the the National Security Space Launch<\/a> Phase 3 Lane 1 program, bringing the total to $17 billion. The indefinite delivery\/indefinite quantity (ID\/IQ) contract has a five-year base plus a five-year option between 2025 and 2034.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Phase 3 Lane 1 contract was awarded in June 2024, there were a total of 60 missions expected for order,\u201d the SSC spokesperson told Breaking Defense today. \u201cThe total number of estimated missions has now increased to approximately 170 due to the growing demand to deliver critical capabilities to orbit. \u2026 As a result, it was necessary to increase the ID\/IQ contract value in response to the new estimated mission quantities expected to be ordered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lane 1 ceiling increase allows for launch services to be funded through a combination of reconciliation<\/a> and baseline budget funds,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

SSC originally chose SpaceX, United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Blue Origin to compete under the Lane 1 program. Last March<\/a> Rocket Lab and Stoke Space were added to the pool, followed by startups Impulse Space and Relativity Federal on July 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vendors selected under the ID\/IQ compete for individual launch task orders. So far, SpaceX has nabbed the bulk of them.<\/p>\n

In October 2024, SpaceX was awarded the first<\/a> such order, worth almost $734 million for seven Space Development Agency (SDA) launches and an undisclosed number for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). On Jan. 9<\/a>, SpaceX won a task order for another nine launches for both SDA and NRO worth $739 million. On April<\/a> 1, it won yet another two SDA launches, worth $178 million.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin won its first task order on May 28, just hours before the spectacular explosion<\/a> of its New Glenn rocket that also heavily damaged its launch pad at Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The Space Force\u2019s move to increase the contract ceiling for less complex, less critical launches by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[17179,76938,79,193,11716,14931,1513,14716],"class_list":["post-778741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-blue-origin","tag-national-security-space-launch","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-force","tag-space-systems-command","tag-spacex","tag-united-launch-alliance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778741","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=778741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}