Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) absorbed a financial hit due to a recent launch delay at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., a key executive said Wednesday.
Issues with a tracking radar at Cape Canaveral has caused delays for both commercial and military launch customers. The Air Force’s launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) NROL-67 satellite was delayed 16 days from March 25 to April 10 because the tracking radar overheated. This also delayed SpaceX’s subsequent launch of Orbcomm’s OG2 satellite from April 30 to May 10.
“It was an impact,” Shotwell told an audience Wednesday at the Atlantic Council think tank in downtown Washington. “SpaceX has to absorb (those costs), that’s kind of what a commercial entity is about.”
Another SpaceX launch, its third Cargo Resupply Services (CRS-3) mission for NASA, was originally scheduled for March 30 at the Cape, but was delayed 19 days. SpaceX customer Orbcomm blamed the primary launch vehicle tracking radar for the delay. Shotwell did not say if the company had to absorb the loss due to the launch delay of the NASA mission. SpaceX’s CRS contract with NASA is a fixed-price contract.
The Air Force has two ranges: the eastern launch range, which is comprised of Patrick AFB, Fla., host to Cape Canaveral, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and a network of instrumentation stations; and the western range, which is Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
Shotwell said because SpaceX is now certified to fly on its own telemetry at the eastern range, there are ways to mitigate the risk of the radars. Telemetry is used to support launch vehicle tracking and assessment for the Launch and Test Range System (LTRS) at the eastern range. LTRS also performs range safety, communications and area surveillance, among others.
CSR, a joint venture of PAE and Raytheon [RTN] subsidiary Raytheon Technical Services Company, is the eastern range technical services (ETRS) contractor. The Air Force said in a Federal Business Opportunities notice that ETRS includes management, range support and control, mission systems, operations and maintenance and engineering and technical support, among others. CSC [CSC] used to be the other half of the ETRS contractor joint venture, but sold its interest to PAE in May 2013 for $175 million in cash. CSC had previously acquired its interest with the 2003 purchase of DynCorp. PAE did not respond to a request for comment.
The Air Force is in source selection for a contract known as LTRS Integrated Support Contract (LISC) that would consolidate its eastern and western range launch support. An Air Force spokeswoman said in April source selection was anticipated by June.
A top Air Force general in May defended the service’s handling of its launch range infrastructure, saying the range has been the culprit in slipping launches a “pretty small amount of time.” Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (AFSMC) chief Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski added the service eventually wants to move to Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking of launch vehicles to eliminate the redundancy of tracking radars, which follow the flight path of launch vehicles to ensure safety (Defense Daily, May 22).