WASHINGTON -- General Dynamics will build a half-billion-dollar rocket fleet to carry into orbit military communications satellites grounded by the Challenger disaster, the Air Force announced Tuesday.
General Dynamics' Space Systems Division of San Diego won over McDonnell Douglas Corp. in a competition to slected the builder of a new class of unmanned rocket called the Medium Launch Vehicle 2, or MLV 2 for short, capable of carrying 6,000-pound payloads into orbit.
The deal is expected to be worth more than $500 million, although details of the contract were not released pending final approval by Congress.
'With this selection, we will develop the full range of capabilities we need to provide launch services for both government and commercial users,' Air Force Secretary Edward Aldridge said in a Pentagon statement.
It said the 11 boosters to be built under the award will be used to launch 10 Defense Satellite Communications Systems spacecraft into orbit, plus a test satellite.
'MLV 2 ... has its genesis as a result of the shuttle stand down,' said Air Force Col. Lester Lyles of Air Force Space Division in Los Angeles.
'Specifically, the program was started to launch the ... defense communications satellites, which have been either put off or delayed from being launched by the shuttle or as a result of the stand down of the shuttle.'
The space shuttle fleet was grounded after the January 1986 explosion that destroyed the Challenger and killed seven crew members. The shuttle had been expected to serve as the major pathway to space for military satellites.
Speaking last week to a gathering of space experts in Cocoa Beach, Fla., Lyles said the Air Force did not 'anticipate any near-term ability to get those DSCS satellites into orbit and to support the constellation that we need ... in the communications realm.'
'As a result of that we, with the blessing of the secretary of the Air Force, embarked on the development of a new class medium launch vehicle, a vehicle with a capability of launching 6,000-plus pounds into geotransfer orbit, a little greater capability than we currently have in our inventory.'
The Air Force already has authority to built 23 more powerful Titan 4 rockets, which can lift shuttle-class payloads, and approval to build a fleet of Delta 2 rockets to carry 4,000-pound-class cargoes into space.
The unprecedented military space buildup, which is expected to cost some $12 billion through 1995, is almost entirely a result of the 1986 Challenger disaster and a desire to provide assured access to space for high priority military payloads.
'The contract with General Dynamics will be signed as soon as the Congress releases the funds already appropriated for the MLV 2,' Aldridge said. 'The details of the winning contract will be provided at that time.'
