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The pending Boeing/Lockheed "United Launch Alliance" (ULA) to provide the Air Force with expendable rockets would unfairly strand taxpayers with a half-billion-dollar-a-year subsidy: that's the message the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU) delivered to Congress today, in an open letter urging lawmakers to end subsidies for the companies' current and proposed space-booster schemes. Federal policymakers are expected to consider the merger deal as early as this week. "Launch platforms for satellites can be expendable, but tax dollars never are," said NTU Director of Government Affairs Paul Gessing. "Over the past decade, the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) initiative...

Griffin Favors Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster for Launching CEV NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said Monday that he favors launching the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) on a single solid rocket booster based on the ones that for the past two decades have helped lift the space shuttle off the launch pad. The so-called single stick approach, which refers to the use of a single solid rocket booster, has been touted by solid rocket maker ATK Thiokol as the safest and simplest solution to launching the CEV. The solid rocket would require an upper stage engine. Boeing and Lockheed Martin, meanwhile,...

Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Hearing Charter: Future Markets for Commercial Space Future Markets for Commercial Space April 20, 2005 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon 2318 Rayburn House Office Building Purpose: On Wednesday, April 20, at 9:30 a.m., the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics will hold a hearing to examine the future of the commercial space market and the government's role in that future. Last year, the President signed into law the Science Committee's Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act, which dealt with regulating one aspect of commercial space - private, human suborbital flights, which are generally intended for space tourism....

I am in favor of space access: the sooner the better, the more the better, and, especially, the cheaper the better. Here are some policy options that I have ranked according to the benefit/cost ratio. 1. Encourage other nations to sell their launches at marginal cost instead of just for “government launches” as espoused in the U.S. Space Transportation Policy (STP). Russia has surplus ICBMs. We should be grateful they are beating their swords into plowshares. We should encourage them to harvest their surplus equipment for cash to worthy Western buyers who want access to space so that they do...

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Boeing Co. (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will likely remain banned from launching military satellites until the U.S. government determines if a former Air Force official, who admitted favoring the company on some contracts, tainted a 1998 competition for the rocket launches. Acting Pentagon acquisitions chief Michael Wynne said a thorough review was needed to assess whether former No. 2 Air Force acquisitions official Darleen Druyun helped award Boeing the lion's share of a $1.9 billion contract under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. "It's really hard for the Air Force to move forward now that...

International Launch Services (ILS), a Lockheed Martin Corp. joint venture, has been given the green light for what will be the first Atlas V launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The launch will be from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 3-East, which is being refurbished to support a late 2005 launch for this national security mission. The launch is for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), as one of 18 missions assigned to ILS and the Lockheed Martin-built Atlas V rocket under the U.S. Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. This is the formal contract for one of those...

The largest and most powerful Atlas rocket in history rushed off its Cape Canaveral pad on a river of golden flame Thursday evening to expand Lockheed Martin's launcher family. The Atlas 5 rocket blasts off from Complex 41 carrying Rainbow 1. Credit: ILS Sporting new solid-fueled strap-on boosters for added liftoff power and a bulbous nose cone to house bigger satellite cargos, this latest version in the evolving line of Atlas rockets signaled the final qualification for pieces comprising the next-generation Atlas 5. "It is exciting that it puts the final exclamation point on the Atlas 5 family," said Adrian...

Lockheed Martin's second Atlas 5 rocket has lifted off on a mission to place the Greek Hellas Sat communications spacecraft into orbit. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 6:10 p.m. EDT (2210 GMT). Follow its climb to orbit in our Mission Status Center.

A Boeing Delta 4 rocket lifted off from its Cape Canaveral launch pad at 7:59 p.m. EST (0059 GMT) today on its first flight for the U.S. military. The $285 million mission will place into orbit a military communications satellite. Follow the rocket's ascent in our Mission Status Center.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Boeing's Delta 4 rocket successfully delivered its first satellite into Earth orbit on Wednesday. Lifting off at 5:39 p.m. EST (2239 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the 20-story rocket began its mission to loft the Eutelsat W5 spacecraft into Earth orbit. The mission, accomplished 37 minutes later, was greeted with cheers and applause by company officials who had waited seven years to launch the rocket that is their contribution to the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. "This is a new day and I think that we, Boeing, have proved a lot...