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SpaceX, US Air Force Settle Spy Sat Dispute

Posted by timothy on from the show-elon-what-you're-wearing dept.

hypnosec writes The US Air Force and private space flight company SpaceX have settled their dispute involving the military's expendable rocket program, thereby paving the way for SpaceX to join the spy satellite launch program known as Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV). The settlement opens doors for SpaceX to compete with United Launch Alliance (ULA) for launch of spy satellites. ULA is a joint Boeing-Lockheed venture – the only private player to have received clearance for launching black ops satellites.

2 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. Is someone looking for a job? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe someone high up in the USAF food chain is retireing soon and looking for a job... Boeing obviously didn't pay them off enough to keep exclusivity on their overpriced program.

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  2. Umm... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe I just don't understand the bold postmodern reality where you can change things just by changing what you call them; but isn't a 'united alliance' between the two effective players in a market what we used to call a 'cartel'?

    Is there some sort of argument in favor of it that gets trotted out with a straight face when someone asks if there was just too much 'ruinous competition' between Boeing and Lockheed, and some 'price stability' was badly needed, or is this purely a because we can sort of operation?