Space Force adds two startups to military’s growing list of national security launch providers

Space Force officials have tapped two startup companies to compete for future national security launch missions, expanding the service’s growing list of providers as the military’s demand for orbital capabilities skyrockets. 

California-based firms Impulse Space and Relativity Federal have both been added to the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 contract, reserved for its more accessible and lower-risk missions. Both companies will receive a $5 million firm-fixed-price task order, indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity contract “to conduct an initial capabilities assessment and develop their approach to tailored mission assurance,” Space Systems Command officials said Wednesday in a news release. The two firms will be able to compete against Blue Origin, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Rocket Lab, and Stoke Space for future launch contracts.

“These new awardees, together with the other providers already on the Lane 1 contract, are building the next generation of launch vehicles. This is critical at a time when our launch cadence is rapidly increasing and our customers are relying on us to deliver everything they need to provide for the security of our nation and allies,” Space Force Col. Eric Zarybnisky, the acting space access portfolio acquisition executive, said in the news release. 

The additions of Relativity Federal and Impulse Space come amid a growing demand for national security launch capabilities. Space Force officials expect upwards of 100 such missions over the next five years, according to the latest budget request. Over the next decade, service leaders speculate that demand could swell to upwards of 3,000 launches from its two launch sites by 2036, according to an April service document. The Lane 1 contract method, aimed at expanding the number of qualified providers, “focuses on rapid contract award, streamlined integration phases and reduced timelines from award to launch,” according to the news release.

“The increase to seven providers in the third year of our NSSL Lane 1 contract is exactly the kind of result we envisioned when we developed our dual-lane strategy to address the changing needs of our customers,” Zarybnisky said in the news release. “We have numerous upcoming missions that the Lane 1 launch providers will be able to compete for as soon as they’ve successfully launched at least once.”

Relativity Federal’s Terran R reusable, two-stage rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral later this year, according to the company’s website. 

Impulse Space’s approach differs from the other providers. The company’s Helios vehicle would be used aboard another provider’s medium lift rocket, transporting payloads from low earth orbit to “high-energy orbits like Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) in less than one day,” according to the company’s news release. The vehicle is scheduled to take its first flight in 2027, according to Impulse’s website.

“Pairing Helios with a standard medium-lift launch vehicle offers a more operationally flexible and cost-effective path to high-energy orbits than other solutions,” Eric Romo, president and COO of Impulse Space, said in a news release. “We look forward to providing a new option for assured access to space for the Space Force.”