4 Win AF Rocket Design Contracts
The Air Force, acting with unusual speed to respond to the space launch crisis in the wake of the loss of the space shuttle Challenger, on Friday awarded four design contracts worth about $5 million each to aerospace firms proposing new launch vehicles.
Hughes Aircraft, McDonnell Douglas Astronautics and General Dynamics Convair, all Southern California firms, received contracts, as did Martin Marietta’s Denver Aerospace.
The Air Force had solicited bids for the system in June, received proposals in late July and made the awards Friday. The Air Force will evaluate the four designs and select one by early next year for production. Ordinarily, such new launch programs can take years to complete.
The new launcher, known as the Medium Launch Vehicle or MLV, will be used to launch the Air Force’s Global Positioning System satellites, with the first launch scheduled for early 1989.
Air Force Secretary Edward C. Aldridge last week unveiled a five-year, $2.6-billion program to overcome the Jan. 28 loss of the Challenger. The Air Force can no longer afford to place great reliance on the shuttle for launching satellites, he said, so the new program will emphasize unmanned rockets.
The Air Force plans to purchase four MLVs with an option to buy four more each year for four years, a total of 20 rockets.
In soliciting bids on the MLV program, the Air Force stressed the need for contractors to propose designs based on “flight-proven hardware” as opposed to starting from scratch.
As a result, McDonnell Douglas proposed a derivative of the Delta rocket, Martin Marietta a derivative of the Titan, General Dynamics a derivative of the Atlas and Hughes Aircraft a derivative of the Saturn.
