The White House on June 7 objected to a provision in the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC)-approved fiscal year 2016 defense authorization bill that would require a study of the cost and benefits of allowing the use of excess ICBM motors in commercial space launch.
The White House, in its statement of administration policy (SAP), said President Barack Obama’s advisers would recommend he veto the bill for a number of reasons. Among these, buried at the bottom of its 21-page statement, the White House said it continues to support long-standing policy that seeks to avoid undermining investment, entrepreneurship and innovation in the launch market. Both federal law and the Obama administration’s National Space Transportation Policy (NSTP) currently prohibit excess ICBM motors from being used in commercial space launch. The law was created roughly 20 years ago to prevent the motors from crippling a developing commercial space launch market.
The SASC bill language requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis to include an evaluation of the effect of allowing such use on national security, the Pentagon, the solid rocket motor industrial base, the commercial space launch market and any other areas GAO considers appropriate. The bill would require the report by Sept. 1.
SASC, in its bill report, says it believes commercial use of decommissioned motors could increase the proficiency of the government infrastructure base, making crews better able to execute government launches, and improve knowledge on rocket motor performance, while reducing the need for the Air Force to store and, eventually, destroy these motors. SASC said the Air Force spends nearly $17 million each year to store and maintain approximately 800 decommissioned Minuteman and Peacekeeper motors and associated equipment at facilities in Utah and Arizona.
The excess ICBM motor issue has returned to the front burner as Orbital ATK [OA] is proposing the Air Force make the motors available. The company believes United States companies are losing out on business to international launch providers, like those in Russia, who are not legally barred from using retired ICBM motors in commercial launch.
A number of launch providers spoke out against the proposed move when Orbital ATK pitched it in March. One was Rocket Lab of New Zealand. Founder and CEO Peter Beck told sister publication Defense Daily at the National Space Symposium in April that selling off excess ICBM motors would stifle innovation and also serve like a subsidy. Beck foresaw companies going out of business because of the cheap launch vehicles that would hit the market. Rocket Lab is developing its Electron rocket to get payloads of 150 kg to a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit.
James Muncy, founder of independent space policy consultancy PoliSpace and a commercial space advocate, said June 8 while he was not surprised by the White House’s objection, he was slightly surprised that it was so strong and clearly worded. Muncy opposes making excess ICBM motors available for commercial launch.
“They’re objecting to the presumption that they should change what has been bipartisan policy for 20 years,” Muncy said. “We know this is a dumb idea, why would you want to study it?”
Orbital ATK spokesman Barry Beneski, in an email, said June 8 the company is pleased to see SASC pursue an impartial GAO review of the current policy toward excess ICBM motors in commercial launch. Beneskis said Orbital ATK is also perplexed by the White House taking exception to this cost-benefit analysis on a potential “evolution” in policy to address U.S. global competitiveness in the 500 kg to 2,000 kg class lunch market. Beneski said the unintended consequence of this policy has been the creation of a robust and dominant market for foreign launchers.
For his part, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) filed an amendment for consideration during floor debate on the defense authorization bill that would allow excess ICBM motors to be used in commercial launch. Lee’s amendment did have a number of caveats, though, like a single commercial provider that did get to use these excess motors would not be able to produce in a single year more than five rockets using excess motors.
Lee’s amendment also limited the total number of rockets in a given year from all domestic providers using excess ICBM motors to no more than 15. His bill banned providers from using excess ICBM motor-based rockets to launch multiple payloads from more than one manufacturer that have a combined mass of 200 kg or less. It also set a five-year sunset date from the date of the defense authorization bill becoming law that would expire authority to transfer excess ICBM motors to commercial providers. The sunset would not affect the use of motors transferred under contracts entered into during the five-year window.
A spokesman for Lee said June 8 he didn’t expect the amendment to be considered for a vote. Orbital ATK has a number of facilities in Utah.