WASHINGTON—The Department of Defense picked Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA) to compete for national security space missions, making initial selections under a $5.6 billion award program.
The Pentagon did not say which of the companies’ rockets it selected, but noted seven companies bid for entry into the program, which seeks upcoming rockets that must be ready to fly their first missions to space by December.
The three companies are the first to be selected under the Pentagon’s lucrative National Security Space Launch Phase 3 procurement program, a multibillion dollar competition among U.S. rocket companies vying to launch some of the country’s most sensitive military and intelligence satellites into space for roughly the next decade....
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