Air Force Secretary Deborah James said she selected former chief of staff and retired Gen. Larry Welch to lead an independent review of the service’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) new entrant certification process.

The process came under fire after the Air Force and new entrant Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) missed a Dec. 31 deadline for certifying the company to become eligible to receive Defense Department launch contracts. Currently, the only certified launch provider is United Launch Alliance (ULA).

The Air Force said earlier this month that SpaceX could be certified as late as mid-2015, though James said Jan. 15 it is “not if, but when” the company will be certified. The service said SpaceX was 80 percent through the certification process.

James credited Welch for heading what she called a successful review of the Air Force’s nuclear weapons program, which was rocked by a cheating scandal that lead to the dismissal of both top officers and lower-ranking airmen. The service is finalizing the details of what the review process will look like, James said.

Though the announcement of the independent review team  came right after the missed deadline announcement, an Air Force spokesman insisted last week this was a “periodic review” and not one prompted by the missed deadline.

“Are there ways that we can streamline, speed up, do things a little bit differently, (while) still…protecting what we call mission assurance,” James told reporters during a briefing with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh. “There could be lessons learned and I want to make sure we have those and implement (them), if it looks appropriate to do so.”

The Air Force has also not ruled out releasing the agreement it made with SpaceX that lays out the road map for EELV certification. The agreement is a new approach called a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). Signed by the two parties in June 2013, the CRADA facilitates data exchanges and protects proprietary and export-controlled data, according to an Air Force statement. The Air Force has denied previous sister publication Defense Daily efforts to acquire the CRADA, citing proprietary info.

The CRADA also enables the Air Force to evaluate SpaceX’s Falcon 9v1.1 launch system according to the service’s New Entrant Certification Guide (NECG). As part of the evaluation, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (AFSMC) and SpaceX will look at the launch vehicle’s flight history, vehicle design, reliability, process maturity and others. The basic requirements of the CRADA was that SpaceX perform at least three certification flights to meet the flight history requirements outlined in the NECG. SpaceX says it completed its three flight requirement early in 2014.

Once the evaluation is complete, the AFSMC commander, which is now Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, will make the final determination on whether SpaceX has the capability to successfully launch national security missions as part of the EELV program, which cover DoD and intelligence community (IC) launches.

Michael Listner, attorney and founding partner of Space Law and Policy solutions in New Hampshire, said Jan. 15 he understood why the Air Force is reluctant to release the CRADA for numerous reasons, among them being this is the first time the service has attempted certifying a new entrant outside of the EELV program since the program was created in the mid-1990s. As this is the first time, Listner said, it would open the Air Force to intense media and political scrutiny with a program the service is trying to “iron out” itself.

“I don’t think they are trying to hide anything,” Listner said. “If they start releasing documents, every armchair expert is going to be out there. On top of that, you still have the litigation (between the Air Force and SpaceX) going on, and if that got put into the mix, that would create a lot of havoc.”

ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].

The Air Force and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) are headed to mediation this month after a federal judge Jan. 14 denied contractor United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Jan. 7 motion to dismiss.

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Susan Braden said in her ruling ULA argued the fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) ratified the “block buy,” two contracts totaling 36 launch cores and billions of dollars, with incumbent national security launch provider ULA.

ULA, a party in the lawsuit, also argued that SpaceX’s lawsuit as moot as the NDAA included restrictions on awarding or renewing contracts for EELV property or services if the contracts carry out activities using rocket engines designed or manufactured in Russia. ULA uses a Russian-developed engine known as the RD-180 in a majority of its launches.

Contrary to ULA’s claim of the NDAA ratifying the block buy, Braden said the NDAA simply recognized the status quo, that the Defense Department has a pre-existing contractual relationship with ULA and nothing more. Braden also said SpaceX’s interest in the case is not moot because the court could still determine that the block buy violated federal procurement laws or regulations or was arbitrary and capricious.

Braden also said SpaceX’s potential opportunity to compete for mission identified in the appropriations bill or two missions identified in the NDAA may not “completely and irrevocably eradicate (or end) the effects” of the allegedly improper block buy award to ULA. Section 8084 of the appropriations bill provided $125 million for the acceleration of a competitive EELV mission, open to all certified providers, and that competition shall consider bids from two or more providers. ULA is currently the only certified EELV provider. Section 1611 of the NDAA directed the defense secretary to add an additional competitive launch in FY ’15 and another in the timeframe of FYs 2015-2017.

Braden said the Air Force filed motions to dismiss on June 30 and Nov. 25 while SpaceX filed a motion for judgment on the administrative record and that briefings on these motions have completed. Michael Listner, attorney and founding partner of Space Law and Policy solutions in New Hampshire, told sister publication Defense Daily Jan. 14 a motion for judgment on the administrative record is a request for the court to make a decision on the complaint based on the information already provided. Braden also said the court will not rule on these motions until mediation is complete.

Listner said he believed the Air Force had to agree to mediation, which he said provides the appearance of acting in good faith. Listner said going to mediation doesn’t mean anything will be resolved, but it does mean that SpaceX can’t come back and say the Air Force is acting in bad faith through its delay in certifying the company to receive EELV contracts.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk told Space News earlier this week the service was colluding with ULA to delay certification, which the Air Force and SpaceX have been working on for almost 18 months. The Air Force announced recently that the company was not certified by a critical Dec. 31 deadline to be eligible for certain missions and might not be certified until as late as mid-2015.

In light of the missed Dec. 31 certification goal, Air Force Secretary Deborah James directed an independent team to review the service’s new entrant certification process, though a service spokesman insisted this is a “periodic review” and not one prompted by the missed deadline.

ULA did not respond to a request for comment by press time Jan. 14. SpaceX spokesman John Taylor declined comment. ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].

Airbus Defence and Space, TerraNIS, and ARTAL Technologies signed a partnership agreement to boost the use of satellite imagery services by private and public international players, Airbus said on Jan. 13.

TerraNIS is a geo-information services company that works in agriculture, environment, and land management. It also provides consulting, support, and expertise for users of satellite Earth observation technologies.

ARTAL Technologies is an IT consulting and services company, specializing in software development. It has experience in software infrastructure of the aeronautics, space, and defense industries.

The partnership is aimed at intensifying the utilization of geo-information services through strong processing channels and an expanded customer portfolio. The companies are targeting customers ranging from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and local authorities to national institutions.

“We are very happy with this collaboration, which will enable a large number of private and public players to access the best of our space technology, thanks to tailor-made services developed to precisely address their needs,” Bernhard Brenner, Head of Geo-Intelligence at Airbus Defence and Space, said in a statement.

Marc Tondriaux, CEO of TerraNIS, added, “Thanks to the ‘Eugenius’ (European Group of Enterprises for a Network of Information Using Space) initiative that we have just launched and are coordinating, we will be setting up a network of European SMEs that, each in their own region, will be providing these cutting-edge services, using the same technical platform and sharing a common catalogue of products and services.”

TerraNIS has previously worked with Airbus by offering worldwide operation and distribution of the Pixagri and œnoview precision agriculture and wine-growing services developed by Airbus Defence and Space, in partnership with ICV (Institut Coopératif du Vin) for wine-growers.

“Thanks to this technical expertise, we provide industrialisation and lifetime maintenance for the production tools developed by Airbus Defence and Space and TerraNIS for the benefit of their customers,” Pierre Duverneuil, CEO of ARTAL Technologies, said.

ARTAL Technologies has about one hundred staff, with offices in France and Canada.

Aerojet Rocketdyne successfully completed the first in a series of hot-fire tests on the RS-25 engine, which will be used on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), according to a company statement.

The company said the test, conducted at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, Miss., demonstrated the ability of the engine’s new computer to control the engine, from fuel-mixture ratios to power levels and performance. The RS-25 is formerly known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). The controller on the SSME served as the “brain” and was manufactured in the 1980s, allowing for communication between the vehicle and the engine.

The new computer has since been modernized with the latest technologies to provide the capability necessary for four RS-25 engines to power the SLS core stage. During the first hot-fire test at Stennis, NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne engineers tested the upgraded engine controller’s ability to control the engine, using different power levels and inlet conditions, according to NASA.

The RS-25 fired for roughly eight minutes, 20 seconds on Jan. 9 in the first hot-fire test of a RS-25 engine since the end of space shuttle main engine testing in 2009, NASA said. The modifications to the RS-25 will meet SLS specifications, according to a NASA engineer.

“The engines for SLS will encounter colder liquid oxygen temperatures than shuttle and greater inlet pressure due to the taller core stage liquid oxygen tank and higher vehicle acceleration,” Steve Wofford, manager of the SLS liquid engines office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala., said in a statement. “(It will also encounter) more nozzle heating due to the four-engine configuration and their position in-plane with the SLS booster exhaust nozzles.”

Testing was to resume in April after upgrades are completed on the high-pressure industrial water system, which provides cool water for the test facility during a hot-fire test. Eight tests; totaling 58 minutes, 20 seconds; are planned for the current development engine. Another development engine will later undergo 10 tests, totaling 75 minutes of testing. The second test series includes the first test of new flight controllers, known as green running.

The first unscheduled flight test of SLS will feature a configuration for a 77-ton lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system.

 Aerojet Rocketdyne is a division of GenCorp [GY].

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) on Jan. 10 successfully launched its fifth Cargo Resupply Services (CRS-5) mission for NASA, but came up short successfully landing its Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage on a floating platform.

Company founder and CEO Elon Musk said Jan. 10 on Twitter the first stage made it to the drone spaceport ship, but “landed hard.” Musk said the ship was “fine” following the landing attempt, but that some support equipment needed to be replaced. SpaceX spokesman John Taylor on Jan. 12 declined to provide further specifics.

The attempted landing of the Falcon 9 first stage was notable as it was the company’s first shot at landing the stage on a surface other than water. Officially known as an autonomous spaceport drone ship, the floating platform is repurposed from deep sea oil rigs. SpaceX’s long-term goal is reusing rockets to help drive down the cost of space launch.

“Close, but no cigar this time,” Musk said on Twitter. “Bodes well for the future, though.”

The Jan. 10 launch was also unique as SpaceX added four hypersonic grid fins placed in an “x-wing” configuration around the Falcon 9 to help guide its first stage to the autonomous spaceport drone ship. Musk said the grid fins worked “extremely well” from hypersonic velocity to subsonic, but ran out of hydraulic fluid right before landing. SpaceX’s next flight, Musk said, already had 50 percent more hydraulic fluid, so he felt it should have plenty of margin for a landing attempt Feb. 2015.

The hypersonic grid fins stowed on ascent and deployed on reentry to control the first stage’s lift vector. Each fin was designed to move independently for roll, pitch and yaw, and combined with engine gimbaling, was to allow for precision landing. Overall, despite the “hard landing,” Musk said CRS-5 made “huge strides” toward reusability.

CRS-5, which is a mission to deliver food and cargo to ISS, successfully launched at 4:47 a.m. EST Jan. 10 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. SpaceX said Jan. 12 on Twitter its Dragon space capsule successfully berthed with the International Space Station (ISS), where it will remain for the next four weeks. NASA said Jan 10 Dragon is scheduled to spend about a month attached to ISS before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California, Mexico.

CRS-5 is the first CRS mission since Orbital Sciences’ [ORB] Antares launch vehicle failed on a launch pad Oct. 28 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on the eastern shore of Virginia. Orbital is contracting with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to provide a CRS mission in the fourth quarter of 2015 with an option for a second launch in 2016, if necessary, to fulfill its duties. ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].

One of the losers of a competition for a potential multi-billion dollar Air Force space launch range support contract asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Dec. 18 to reconsider its dismissal of a protest.

Range Generation Next LLC, a joint venture of Raytheon [RTN] and General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), beat out InSpace 21 LLC, a joint venture of PAE and Honeywell [HON], and IBL JV LLC, a joint venture of Exelis [XLS], L-3 Communications [LLL] and BAE Systems, in November for a contract initially worth $86 million but potentially worth $2 billion if all options are exercised.

InSpace 21 LLC asked GAO to reconsider its decision to dismiss a protest filed Nov. 24 by a PAE vice president on behalf of InSpace 21, which argued in its protest that the Air Force failed to conduct meaningful discussions and that the best value tradeoff and source selection decision was unreasonable. IBL JV LLC also protested the contract award to Range Generation Next, but withdrew its protest on Dec. 15. Exelis spokeswoman Leah Lackey said Jan. 9 the joint venture is not considering refilling its protest. She declined to say why IBL JV withdrew its protest.

A dispute between PAE and Honeywell over whether to protest eventually led GAO to dismiss the protest. GAO said a PAE vice president filed a protest Nov. 24, but Honeywell the Nov. 25 said PAE didn’t have the authority to do so as the joint venture’s board did not vote unanimously to protest. According to GAO, board minutes filed by Honeywell showed disagreement between the two companies about whether unanimous or majority consent was required to protest.

GAO concluded that the protestor, PAE, was not an interested party because the two joint venture companies could not agree on who is authorized to file a protest on behalf of InSpace 21. GAO also said though Honeywell asked the office to resolve their dispute, GAO by law is not allowed to review disputes between private parties.

GAO expects a decision no later than March 30, though reconsideration decisions usually arrive much sooner. LISC covers Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. It also provides operations, organizational- and depot-level maintenance and sustainment at the two launch sites. LISC represents an Air Force effort to consolidate many launch range sustainment contracts into one.

Lockheed Martin [LMT] expects Germany and Italy to select contractors for their respective missile defense programs no later than April, company spokeswoman Mellissa Hilliard said Jan. 8.

Lockheed Martin calls Germany’s TLVS, or tactical air defense system, a new generation of air and missile defense that requires a flexible architecture based on strong networking capabilities. The tri-national Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), of which Lockheed Martin is teaming with MBDA of Germany and Italy, is a candidate for TLVS, according to a Lockheed Martin statement.

Company Vice President of Air and Missile Defense Business Development Mike Trotsky told reporters Jan. 7 Germany has been studying TLVS candidates for over a year. Raytheon [RTN] is also a candidate with its Patriot air and missile defense system, company spokeswoman Bailey Sargent said Jan. 8. Some combination of both systems is also a possibility.

MEADS is also expected to become the basis of Italy’s national defense system, according to Lockheed Martin. Trotsky said MEADS completed a formal contract review with evaluators from Germany, Italy and the United States in December, completing a series of achievements that began with a successful dual intercept back in 2013.

Lockheed Martin also said MEADS will participate in technical discussions for Poland’s short-range Narew air defense system. Narew will be capable of destroying aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and cruise missiles. Raytheon and Kongsberg are teaming to offer the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile (NASAMS) for Narew, Sargent said.

Trotsky also said Lockheed Martin and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) are in discussions for a multi-year contract procurement of the company’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Cheryl Amerine said Jan. 8 the company and MDA are negotiating a five-year deal, but she didn’t provide details of the potential value. Trotsky said the United States is currently under contract for six THAAD batteries while Lockheed Martin is working on a seventh battery.

Lockheed Martin and MDA are also in discussions over an eighth and ninth THAAD battery, Trotsky added. THAAD provides the United States with the capability to destroy ballistic missiles inside or outside the atmosphere during their final, or terminal, phase of flight.

The Air Force said Jan. 7 it is delaying its goal of certifying Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) for national security space launches to no later than mid-2015 after the two parties missed a critical Dec. 31 deadline.

“Although certification was not awarded as of the end of December…we expect to certify SpaceX no later than mid-year,” Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (AFSMC) chief Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves said through a spokesman. The Air Force did respond to specific questions as to why the two parties missed the Dec. 31 deadline.

The process of getting SpaceX certified for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) missions is known as new entrant certification, which is key as it makes the company eligible to be awarded contracts. Currently, only EELV incumbent United Launch Alliance (ULA) is certified to perform EELV missions, which consist of launches for the Defense Department and intelligence community (IC). The Air Force in July issued a request for proposals (RFP) for its first competitive procurement of a space launch in 10 years–a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) mission known as NROL-79. The launch is scheduled for mid-2016.

In light of the missed Dec. 31 certification goal, Air Force Secretary Deborah James directed an independent team to review the service’s new entrant certification process, though a service spokesman insisted this is a “periodic review” and not one prompted by the missed deadline.

“As with other periodic looks we’ve done over the years, we will further assess whether we can streamline and improve the certification process while protecting mission assurance,” Air Force spokesman Capt. Chris Hoyler said Jan. 7. “We believe our certification process is sound.”

Hoyler said the purpose of the independent review is to capture “lessons learned” so the Air Force can “enhance competition” for launch services. The Air Force did not respond to specific questions about the composition of the independent team. SpaceX did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Hoyler said SpaceX has satisfied over 80 percent of the certification criteria. The certification processes and standards developed in response to major failures in the late ’90s, Hoyler said, have helped ensure no major failures in national security launches since 1999.

SpaceX and the Air Force signed a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) in June 2013 as part of the company’s effort to be certified for EELV missions. As part of the CRADA, SpaceX was required to perform at least three successful flights of a common launch vehicle configuration to be considered for EELV missions. The company said in July the Air Force certified Falcon 9 as having conducted three successful flights. SpaceX said in a July statement it expected to satisfy the remaining certification requirements later in 2014. The company did not respond Jan. 7 when asked if it completed its end of these certification requirements.

SpaceX and the Air Force are currently in litigation over the service awarding ULA a multi-billion dollar “block buy” of 36 launch cores. Michael Listner, attorney and founding partner of Space Law and Policy solutions in New Hampshire, told sister publication Defense Daily Jan. 7, instead of amending its original lawsuit against the Air Force, the company might get better results from filing another lawsuit against the service over potentially missing out on NROL-79 due to missing the Dec. 31 certification deadline.

Listner said SpaceX amending its original lawsuit against the Air Force over the block buy might agitate the service and would also be subject to a judge’s approval.

“If they are not certified because of this delay, they may be able to file a fresh suit in federal court,” Listner said. “That might actually have more teeth and get more traction than trying to amend their complaint in the current lawsuit.”

SpaceX would not say Jan. 7 if it planned further legal action against the Air Force following the announcement of the certification delay. ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].

The Navy has begun working through the specifications required to introduce the new Air Missile Defense Radar to the Aegis air and ballistic missile defense combat system deployed on Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyers, the service’s program manager for Aegis said Jan. 14.

Capt. Tom Druggan said that since the preliminary design review (PDR) of the AMDR hardware was completed in the last year, determining the interface specifications to integrate the AMDR into Aegis is the next step.

So far, the process has gone smoothly and no major challenges have arisen, Druggan said. “Nothing has come out of that saying ‘our hair is on fire, we’re having huge issues’,” he said during the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium being held this week just outside Washington.

The Navy has been working with Raytheon [RTN], the prime contractor for AMDR, and Lockheed Martin [LMT], the provider of Aegis, to work through the details. Druggan said the bigger challenge ahead will be implementing the interface specifications to allow the two systems two operate together, although he also anticipates no major problems.

“We’re on track to do the specifications,” he said. “The harder part will be implementing those specifications on the interface, but it’s straightforward engineering work.”

AMDR is the main feature of the Navy’s planned flight III version of the Arleigh Burke destroyers. The first of the flight III ships is scheduled to go under contract for construction in 2016.

AMDR is more powerful than the Lockheed Martin AN/SPY-1 radar that guides missiles to targets and is currently active on destroyers and cruisers, but will be succeeded by AMDR on the flight III destroyers. AMDR is designed to be able to detect and track more advanced threats than the SPY-1.

The flight III ships will require some re-engineering to accommodate AMDR’s larger size and powering and cooling requirements.

Raytheon prevailed over Lockheed Martin, the maker of the SPY-1, and Northrop Grumman [NOC], for a 2013 contract award in the Navy’s competition to provide the AMDR.

Capt. Mark Vandroff, the program manager for the Arleigh Burkes, has said AMDR will also require a slight redesign of the ship’s stern to increase buoyancy.

The Navy expects to request engineering change proposals (ECPs) from the two DDG-51 shipbuilders in 2016 if AMDR stays on schedule. If not, the Navy could continue to build the flight IIA version of the ships until AMDR is ready.

General Dynamics [GD] Bath Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] are the two prime contractors for the DDG-51 hulls.