An Evolutionary Approach to Space Launch Commercialization

Abstract

The findings and recommendations of this study fall into two groups: Department of Defense (DoD) space launch procurement and DoD steps to strengthen U.S. launch competitiveness. Our analytic results support the choices that the Air Force and the Navy have made since 1985 in the methods of procuring launch services and in the degree of government oversight stipulated in these launch contracts. We further found that the Air Force's upcoming Medium Launch Vehicle- 3 (MLV-3) procurement is DoD's most suitable major program to be procured with commercial practices over the next ten years. We recommend that the MLV-3 Request For Proposal (RFP) include commercial launches as an option and that the Air Force consider this option. To help strengthen launch competitiveness, we recommend that DoD concentrate its new launcher development on the most commercially relevant (MCR) range, which is the capability to lift 10,000 to 50, 000 lb of payload into low earth orbits (LEOs).

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA269861

Entities

People

  • Brian G. Chow

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Astronautics
  • Cis
  • Commerce
  • Contracts
  • Cost Reductions
  • Earth Orbits
  • Families (Human)
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Military Budgets
  • National Security
  • Space Systems
  • Space Transportation
  • Spacecraft

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering.
  • Economics
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting

Technology Areas

  • Space