Cape Canaveral: June 2011 Archives

As military-launch costs soar, would-be competitors protest, Orlando Sentinel

"NASA workers looking for a job after space shuttle Atlantis' final flight likely won't have much luck at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which has launched a generation of military and national-intelligence satellites. The military-rocket business isn't doing too well -- at least according to United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that manufactures the bulk of the rockets launched into orbit by the military. Company officials said the cost of parts has gone up, and the uncertainty of post-shuttle work at NASA has resulted in subcontractors raising prices. As a result, ULA is sharply increasing the prices it charges the Defense Department to launch military satellites, prompting the Air Force to raise its projected launch costs by nearly 50 percent during the next four years."