National Security Space Launch

Yeah, hardware is always an encouraging detail.

When I look at what Stoke is doing, and this is just my guess, but they were assigned on to the NSSL program.

And what's now Pathfinder is almost certainly too small to really be a useful vehicle there.

Oh, and the fairing is very odd.

And if that mass estimate is true, then yes, they would officially achieve that.

That's the real marker for me of what comes next.

And then, yeah, seeing hopefully some analyst, who knows, maybe Quality Space, we'll get to ask them On an earnings call, are you planning on making Starship available for others? Is this something where the space side of the business is just this thing that should be modeled down because you're only going to launch your existing customers that you have and presumably keep Falcon 9 and Heavy flying until you've completed the NSSL contract in, again, 2032 or 34.

There's military payloads that don't shift well to other rockets, and so it gives them justification to keep flying for a bit.

scary a little sus um And so, you know, that shifted away.

DoD eventually spins up what would become the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program, which is now NSSL.

And we kind of get Shuttle left with not a lot to do.

And so Freedom and Mirror, you know, Mirror was definitely ahead of anything that US planners were thinking.

United Launch Alliance sale.

Launch pricing and national security space launch access for new providers executive summary.

A United Launch Alliance sale would reshape launch pricing and national security space launch access as the buyer would inherit 19 phase three lane two missions worth over $5.3 billion.

No sale has been announced.

Reports of September 10, 2026 renewed speculation that Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which each own 50% of the joint venture may divest it, and an interim chief executive has led the company since December 2025.

A private equity buyer would push prices toward the lane two premium and offer fewer commercial seats.

The Space Force sets the price in each case through firm fixed price task orders, and a buyer that wants the 19 lane two missions must accept the schedule and mission assurance terms attached to them.

How do new launch companies get national security space launch access today? New launch companies reach the government market through lane one of phase three, and the ceiling for that lane tripled on July 17, 2026.