The contract,
worth $96.5 million, is the second GPS satellite launch contract
awarded by the Air Force to Musk's rocket company, known as
SpaceX. United Launch Alliance, however, did not bid for the
first GPS launch contract, which was awarded in April 2016. At
the time, the Air Force said SpaceX's $83 million bid was about
40 percent less than what the military had been paying United
Launch Alliance for previously awarded contracts.
The GPS launch contracts won by SpaceX cover production of a
Falcon 9 launch vehicle, mission integration, launch operations
and spaceflight certification, the Air Force said in a
statement. The launch, slated for February 2019, is intended to
put the third member of the next-generation GPS satellite
network into orbit. SpaceX won certification from the Air Force
in 2015 to compete for military and national security space
launches, breaking United Launch Alliance’s 10-year monopoly.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Diane
Craft)
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