Rocket Science

The Air Force makes military space look easy. It is not.

The Air Force’s space launch enterprise has done the seemingly impossible across the last 20 years or so: made rocket science look easy.

United Launch Alliance, the joint rocket venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, logged its 125th successful space launch in late January, when it lofted the fourth Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) missile warning satellite into geosynchronous orbit. Not all 125 launches were national security launches, and other companies, notably SpaceX, also have successfully orbited satellites and other payloads. But the number of failures—once the stuff of constant headlines—has dwindled while the box score of successes continues to grow.

The string of effective launches belies the fact that getting to orbit is a tough business, and one that continues to evolve.

The latest SBIRS deployment came at a time when USAF’s ability to monitor the world for strategic missile launches was critical. North Korea’s string of long-range missile tests suggested it could soon make good on threats to attack the US directly. “We have a constellation of satellites that detects the IR [infrared] signature of a launch. And they can tell us where the launch is coming from and characterize what kind of rocket it is, based on the launch,” said USAF Gen. Paul J. Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when describing SBIRS to reporters on Jan. 30.

The Jan. 19 SBIRS launch was made on a ULA Atlas V rocket. Three previous SBIRS satellites were launched on ULA rockets in 2011, 2012, and 2017.

The Air Force’s Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Flight-4 (SBIRS GEO-4) satellite stands ready for encapsulation Jan. 9, 2018 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Photo by Jim Dowdall, Lockheed Martin

The payload of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket sits on its Space Launch Complex-3 launch pad surrounded by fog, but ready for launch at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., in September 2010. ULA launched NROL-41, a reconnassance satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, on Sept. 20, 2010. United Launch Alliance photo

A SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable booster rocket lands after the launch of a classified satellite from Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Jan. 7, 2018. Contracted by Northrop Grumman for an unspecified U.S. agency, the satellite was known to be headed into a low Earth orbit, roughly 250 miles up, on a northeasterly trajectory angled about 50 degrees relative to the equator. SpaceX photo

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket stands ready to launch the Air Force’s third Space-Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) satellite (GEO-3) at Space Launch Complex-41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., January 18, 2017. United Launch Alliance photo

The U.S. Air Force’s 45th Space Wing supported United Launch Alliance’s successful launch of the third Space Based Infrared Systems Geosynchronous Earth Orbit spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41 here Jan. 20 at 7:42 p.m. ET. The launch is the first major launch operation of 2017 on the Eastern Range and kicks off what is predicted to be a busy year on the Eastern Range. Courtesy photo by United Launch Alliance

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission 3 (OTV-3), the Air Force’s unmanned, reusable space plane, landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9:24 a.m. Oct. 17, 2014. The OTV-3 conducted on-orbit experiments for 674 days during its mission, extending the total number of days spent on-orbit for the OTV program to 1367 days. The X-37B is the newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft. Managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, the X-37B program performs risk reduction, experimentation and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies. Boeing

ULA has had a majority of the Air Force’s space launch business in recent years. The Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986 compelled the service to develop alternative ways to orbit. The “Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle” program led to the modern day Lockheed Martin Atlas and Boeing Delta rockets. At first they competed with one another, but as the need for launch services dipped in the early 2000s, the companies joined forces to create ULA in 2006. Orbital ATK (formerly Orbital Sciences, and now a part of Northrop Grumman), founded in 1982, also lofts lighter payloads to low orbits.

Despite the downturn in space, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos started up Blue Origin in 2000, with the idea of offering lower cost, reliable launch services. Fellow entrepeneur Elon Musk, who founded PayPal and later Tesla, launched SpaceX in 2002, with similar goals. Today Blue Origin offers the Shepard and Glenn rockets, while SpaceX has had a string of successes with the Falcon 9 and, in February, the Falcon Heavy vehicle. SpaceX has demonstrated the ability to soft-land its booster rockets, which it then refurbishes for re-use, significantly reducing its costs.

The Falcon Heavy inaugural launch on Feb. 6 carried one of Musk’s Tesla roadsters into space, where it was boosted into a solar orbit that will take it out to the asteroid belt. Musk was aiming for Mars.

Musk has had a relationship with NASA as far back as 2008, but had to fight in court to win the right to compete for Air Force launch services work. SpaceX won that right in 2015 and began winning USAF launches in May 2017.

Last September, Brig. Gen. Wayne R. Monteith, commander of the 45th Space Wing, commended SpaceX for injecting a culture of speed into the launch enterprise, which allowed USAF to launch more rockets last year than Russia or China.

Technicians make last-minute preparations for the encapsulation of the Air Force’s Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Flight-4 (SBIRS GEO-4) satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, Jan. 9. GEO Flight-4 will make the journey to Space Launch Complex-41 on Jan. 11, where it will be mated with its Atlas V-411 rocket. It is scheduled for launch on Jan. 18 at 7:52 p.m., Eastern (4:52 p.m. Pacific). Photo by Jim Dowdall, Lockheed Martin

With Earth as a backdrop, a cherry-red Tesla convertible, with a dummy driver named Starman, is dressed in a SpaceX space suit as David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” blasts from the speakers. On Feb. 6, 2018, the SpaceX Heavy rocket with the Tesla aboard as payload lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The Falcon Heavy’s successful flight means that the Heavy is now the most powerful rocket in operation, surpassing its nearest competitor, the Delta IV Heavy of the United Launch Alliance, when it comes to lifting payload. SpaceX photo

A Tesla Roadster is prepared for launch as payload for the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Featuring three powerful boosters, the rocket will give SpaceX the abilty to loft bigger payloads into space. According to a Twitter message from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, “Destination is Mars orbit. Will be in deep space for a billion years or so if it doesn’t blow up on ascent.” Dec. 6, 2017 SpaceX photo

Twin booster rockets from the just-launched SpaceX Heavy rocket return to Earth, successfully landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Feb. 6, 2018. SpaceX photo

SpaceX “has forced us to become better at what we do,” Monteith said. “We are adopting commercial business practices, we are becoming more efficient, more effective, more affordable.”

Monteith’s remarks came just a few weeks after SpaceX’s successful launch of the secretive Air Force X-37B. Built by Boeing and managed by the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office, the X-37B is a mini-spaceplane which conducts classified experimental activities in orbit. ULA handled the last X-37B launch in 2015. This was one of two national security launches SpaceX had notched on its belt before 2018; the other was a National Reconnaissance Office payload.

Things don’t always go well. Underscoring the hazards of getting to orbit, something went wrong after a Falcon 9 put a secret payload called Zuma—built by Northrop Grumman—into space on Jan. 7. SpaceX insisted it had fulfilled its part of the job, while Northrop Grumman was silent. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center commander Lt. Gen. John Thompson said through a spokeswoman that the rocket was an “FAA-licensed, commercially procured launch service,” and that USAF had not identified “any information that would change SpaceX’s Falcon 9 certification status” due to whatever happened to Zuma.

There are other space launch startups in the wings, readying rockets and spacecraft they hope will compete for the next stage of military and civil space access. They, too, may become an indispensible part of USAF’s quest to reach orbit reliably and inexpensively, even as the service becomes evermore dependent on space capabilities.

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