INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
"Our rocket has a unique niche within this marketplace," Bruno said
There are ones where you drop off in LEO, and there are ones where you drop off in higher orbits
You design your rockets differently for that
those because we designed for that."There's some truth in that argument
The Vulcan rocket's upper stage, called the Centaur V, burns liquid hydrogen fuel with better fuel efficiency than the kerosene-fueled
engine on SpaceX's upper stage
And SpaceX must use the more expensive Falcon Heavy rocket for the most demanding missions, expending the rocket's core booster to devote
more propellant toward driving the payload into orbit.SpaceX has launched at a rate nearly 34 times higher than United Launch Alliance since
the start of 2023, but ULA has more experience with high-energy missions, featuring more complex maneuvers to place military payloads
directly into geosynchronous orbit, and sometimes releasing multiple payloads at different locations in the geosynchronous belt.This is one
of the most challenging mission profiles for any rocket, requiring a high-endurance upper stage, like Vulcan's Centaur V, capable of
cruising through space for eight or more hours.SpaceX has flown a long-duration version of its upper stage on several missions by adding an
This gives the rocket longer battery life and a custom band of thermal paint to help ensure its kerosene fuel does not freeze in the cold
environment of space.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket rolls to the launch pad in Florida in June 2024
The rocket's upper stage sports a strip of gray thermal paint to keep propellants at the proper temperature for a long-duration cruise
through space.
Credit:
SpaceX
On the other hand, the overwhelming
majority of SpaceX's missions target low-Earth orbit, where Falcon 9 rockets deploy Starlink Internet satellites, send crews and cargo to
the International Space Station, and regularly launch multi-payload rideshare missions
These launches maximize the Falcon 9's efficiencies with booster recovery and reuse
SpaceX is proficient and prolific with these missions, launching them every couple of days
toss-up for any given mission."Recent history seems to support Bruno's hypothesis
Last year, SpaceX and ULA competed head-to-head for nine specific launch contracts, or task orders, in a different Space Force competition
The launches will place national security satellites into low-Earth orbit, and SpaceX won all nine of them
Since 2020, ULA has won more Space Force task orders than SpaceX for high-energy missions, although the inverse was true in this year's
