Both companies lost at the Phas Awards for the launch of National Security Space Launch (NSSL) launch services on August 7. On that date, the Space force`s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office (NGO), awarded the United Launch Alliance (ULA) a $337 million contract for two secret mission launches and Space X a $316 million contract for a classified mission launch under Phase 2 of LSP. Northrop Grumman said the company was « confident that we have submitted a strong proposal that reflects our extensive space launch experience and adds value to our customers, and we look forward to our customer debriefing. » « The order backlog awarded includes the first year of service service and the prices of the various missions ordered by the companies involved, » said SMC. « These awards were proposed by the companies as part of the Phase 2 acquisition and reflect significant savings over the historical prices of previous NSSL start-up acquisitions. » During the phone call with reporters, Roper was asked to explain why SpaceX is paid almost the same amount for a mission that ULA receives for two missions. Roper declined to comment on the matter and said the launches are classified missions. In 2018, a competitive contract has been awarded for the launch of national security spacecraft between United Launch Alliance (ULA), Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS), Blue Origin and SpaceX. The Falcon Heavy is a heavy missile developed and produced by SpaceX. He was certified for the NSSL program after the launch of STP-2 completed on June 25, 2019, as Air Space and Missile Systems Center Captain Lt Gen. Thompson confirmed. [31] He clarified, « I have certified to them that I was running last year, » and « [o]ne of the requirements behind certification is to fly three missions. » This requirement was met by the Falcon Heavy test flight in February 2018, the Arabsat-6A in April 2019 and the launch of the GfbS-2 in June 2019. However, Falcon Heavy has only been certified for two Phase 1A reference orbits and « [i]t is certified for all of our most stressful national safety space orbits, » Thompson said. [32] Thus, the USAF collaborated with SpaceX to develop the design of its Falcon Heavy.
For the CCAFS launches, « Airmen, Air force civilians and contractors from across the 45th Space Wing provided significant support, including weather forecasting, start-up and range operations, security, security, medical and public affairs.