Boeing’s George Muellner expressed dismay that industry often “only has one shot” to field today’s complex space systems, saying it’s a harsh program environment. He believes there must be more stability in the process of acquiring and deploying space systems, certainly one that allows the space team to solve technical issues before anything is put into orbit.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.