Air Force Space Command has approved a five-year license for SpaceX—Space Exploration Technologies Corp.—to operate from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. SpaceX will have to “pay for all improvements, construction, and maintenance” associated with SpaceX operations at SLC-40 and does not have exclusive use of the site, per an AFSPC statement. SpaceX, created by entrepreneur Elon Musk as a lower cost space launch operation, already has an agreement to operate from the West Coast launch facility at Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd III met with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines to discuss bolstering defense ties on May 2. The discussion included plans for joint F-35 exercises with Japan and Australia in the coming years.