A Note From Our President & Founder Jim Garrettson
America’s space program appears to be the place where government and industry are taking concrete steps toward increased public-private partnerships as a means to spur innovation on both sides and create opportunity for both sides to drive value for stakeholders.
We saw two examples of that collaboration this week as both the Air Force and NASA announced their next steps in two initiatives that are garnering much attention from industry observers as potentially transformative for our country’s much-celebrated space program.
Orbital ATK and Elon Musk’s SpaceX were awarded separate funding sets from the Air Force to work on new propulsion systems for the service branch’s heavy-lift launches that currently rely on the Russian RD-180 engine the U.S. government is aiming to replace.
Both of these “other transaction agreements” share development costs between the contractors and the Air Force, which aims to spur new competition in a launch services market through the deals.
The second major space event announced this week came in the civilian realm when NASA selected Orbital ATK, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada for a new round of cargo transportation flights to and from the International Space Station.
Each company will receive six flights a piece under the eight-year Commercial Resupply Services “Round 2” contracts and the Space Station’s program manager said NASA expects to award the first mission this year.
Like the Air Force, NASA also wants to end its dependence on Russia for space access by 2017 and believes partnerships with the commercial sector are the best way to achieve that goal.
Stacey Dixon Joins IARPA as Deputy Director
Dixon will oversee multi-disciplinary research programs at the intelligence community’s research-and-development organization.
Saab‘s U.S. business arm has booked a $104 million order to supply the Department of Defense with AT4 anti-tank weapon systems and Carl-Gustaf ammunition between 2024 and 2026. The contract extends an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity framework agreement signed by DOD and Saab in 2019, which could increase in value by $422 million, the company said Monday. DOD
Saab has secured a $122 million modification to a contract with the U.S. Marine Corps for the production and delivery of force-on-force training systems. The modification includes a $54 million order booked in 2021 and options that would raise the potential value of the FoFTS-Next contract to $248 million, Saab said Wednesday. USMC chose the
Saab has received a potential $445M contract to supply ammunition for a disposable weapon system and a recoilless rifle to support the U.S. Army, Marine Corps and special forces.
