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SpaceX, ULA awarded eight more US military launch contracts
The US military has awarded providers SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance (ULA) another eight launch contracts worth a total of $846 million that the companies will be tasked with completing over the next two or so years.
The US Space Systems Command (SSC) announced the decision on May 26th, providing some basic information about which missions were going to which provider. Per a highly unusual National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 competition that ULA and SpaceX ultimately won in 2020, all major US military launches scheduled between 2020 and 2024 (at minimum) are to be split 60:40 between the companies, and this latest set of missions – more ‘funded’ than ‘awarded’ – are no different. Curiously, they also appear to indicate less of a cost cap than usual between SpaceX and its lone US competitor.
SpaceNews author Sandra Erwin has done an excellent job collating extra information about the eight launches rewarded. The latest batch continue a bizarre trend of the US military awarding complex, high-performance missions to ULA’s Vulcan Centaur, a rocket that has never flown and is unlikely to debut before 2023. Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which is the most flown and most statistically reliable rocket currently in operation, continues to be used primarily for much simpler launches to lower orbits.
With this latest batch, ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket was assigned GPS III SV07 (headed to a medium Earth orbit); WGS-11, a geostationary military communications satellite; and USSF-16, USSF-23, and USSF-43, which are classified and unidentified. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was assigned USSF-124 (headed to low Earth orbit), USSF-62 (a military weather satellite headed to a polar orbit), and SDA Tranche 1 (a set of small communications satellites, some built by SpaceX, headed to a low polar orbit).
According to SpaceNews, ULA was awarded $566 million (~$113 million per launch) and SpaceX was awarded $280 million for its three contracts, meaning that SpaceX is charging an unusually high ~$93 million per Falcon 9 launch. Each of SpaceX’s three missions will almost certainly allow for Falcon 9 booster recovery, making the high cost even more odd.
Through its adherence to a bizarre 60:40 contract split that can only be described as an effort to ensure that ULA – possibly already predetermined to win before the competition began – would receive a lion’s share of contracts, has firmly hitched several near-term carts to a rocket that still hasn’t launched 22 months after its victory. Including a demonstration mission carrying a Moon lander and one or two NASA Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) missions carrying Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser space plane and cargo vehicle, Vulcan Centaur now has at least 11 launches – 10 for the US government – planned in 2023 and 2024.
Blue Origin, a company that has yet to deliver a single flightworthy BE-4 rocket engine to ULA, would need to deliver at least 22 engines over the next two or so years to avoid delaying Vulcan’s manifest. ULA’s existing rockets, Atlas V and Delta IV, each completed four launches in their first two years of service. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 was no different, launching four times in its first 2.5 years of operation. Only time will tell if Vulcan can more than double the early records of its closest rocket siblings.
SpaceX has announced a new target date for the thirteenth test flight of Starship: Monday, July 20, with the launch window opening at 6:45 p.m ET/5:45 p.m. CT.
This is the first rescheduling attempt of Starship’s 13th test flight. It was set to launch last night, but SpaceX scrubbed the launch attempt.
🚨 SpaceX is now looking at Monday, July 20th at 6:45 p.m ET/5:45 p.m. CT for the 13th test flight of Starship pic.twitter.com/7s8aMJV5Ge
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 17, 2026
CEO Elon Musk revealed that some of the engines on Starship did not start, which automatically triggers a launch abort. Two of the Raptor engines will be removed and replaced.
To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2026
SpaceX officially announced the new launch window this morning.
Starship’s 13th test launch comes with a few new objectives, but SpaceX does not plan to attempt a catch of the booster, which it has done several times in the past.
For Starship’s Upper Stage, there are some adjustments to ensure engine reusability that will be assessed during the ascent, and 20 operational Starlink V3 satellites are also set to make their way into space. SpaceX also plans to attempt an in-space relight of a single Raptor engine, which is a critical demonstration for future orbital deorbit, refueling, and deep space maneuvers.
Ultimately, it will splash down in the Indian Ocean.
The continuous tests help SpaceX advance the Starship program toward eventual full reusability, operational Starlink V3 deployment, and future missions, which include NASA’s Artemis program.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
Four Raptor engines failed to ignite at T-zero, forcing SpaceX to scrub Starship Flight 13 Thursday.
SpaceX scrubbed the Starship Flight 13 launch attempt Thursday evening at the last possible moment, after four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence. The 90-minute window had opened at 6:45 p.m. EDT from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and the countdown had proceeded without issue all day, with more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen being fully loaded into the rocket before the automated abort triggered. SpaceX’s launch directors posted on X, “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt,” and shut down the livestream shortly after.
Musk confirmed the root cause within hours. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he wrote on X. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.” SpaceX engineers began draining propellant tanks immediately and Booster 20 was rolled back to its hangar for inspection.
The timing adds a layer of significance that did not exist during any of the previous 12 Starship flights. This is the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch Starship since the company made its stock market debut in June, listing under ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Public investors are now watching every Starship outcome in real time, and a last-second abort carries more visibility than it would have six months ago.
Flight 13 was designed to be one of the most consequential tests in the program’s history. It was set to carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload Starship has ever attempted to deploy. Six of those satellites carried external cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from the outside during flight, which would act as a self-inspection approach SpaceX has never attempted before. The mission also needed to complete a Raptor engine relight in space, a step SpaceX skipped on Flight 12 in May after losing an engine during ascent. That Flight 12 booster also flipped 90 degrees off course during its boostback burn when five engines failed to reignite.
SpaceX has not announced an official next launch date. Musk’s “early next week” window points to July 21 or 22 at the earliest, pending the engine swap and a return to the pad.
Elon Musk flew under the radar with his recent purchase of a $1 billion energy company, according to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) documents.
Transaction number 202612350 listed Tesla and SpaceX frontman Elon Musk as the acquiring party and CF APR Super Holdings LLC as the seller, with New APR Energy, LLC as the acquired entity. The deal, which closed without public announcement, came to light on May 14.
BREAKING: Elon Musk acquires Jacksonville power company APR Energy in a deal valued at more than $1,000,000,000.00.
— Polymarket Money (@PolymarketMoney) July 15, 2026
Analysts inferred the deal’s scale from minority stakeholder disclosures, including one report of a 5 percent interest sold for approximately $50.4 million. Fortress Investment Group had purchased APR’s assets in late 2024, rebranded the operation as New APR Energy, and subsequently transferred ownership to Musk.
APR Energy specializes in rapidly deployable power infrastructure. The company maintains one of the world’s largest fleets of mobile gas and diesel turbines, with more than 1.1 gigawatts of generation capacity. Its modular units, which are often trailer-mounted, enable turnkey installations ranging from 20 MW to over 500 MW.
APR provides full engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance services for behind-the-meter power plants, serving everything from data centers, utilities, and industrial clients.
The firm has expanded aggressively to meet surging demand, recently adding turbines and deploying over 100 MW for a major AI hyperscaler. Its solutions bridge critical gaps where grid interconnections face delays of two to five years, according to Yahoo.
The acquisition means something more for Musk. As he continues to expand projects in artificial intelligence, especially xAI, his AI venture, there is a greater need to supply energy-intensive supercomputing clusters, including the Colossus project, with what they need: reliable and high-capacity power.
Ownership of APR provides immediate access to flexible generation assets that can be deployed adjacent to data centers, reducing dependence on a strained infrastructure. It also complements Tesla’s energy storage business, so Musk will be able to pull from his own entities to address the rapid scaling demands of AI training and compute.
SpaceX announces new Starship 13 test flight target date
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
