Lockheed-Boeing venture told to up satellite launches

Since 2019 the United Launch Alliance has averaged six to seven launches per year, Air Force's Calvelli said, and that needs to increase to about two a month. — Bloomberg

AUSTIN: The Lockheed Martin Corp-Boeing Co joint venture that competes with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch the United States’ most sensitive satellites needs to pick up its pace as the Air Force is trying to certify its newest rocket as mission-ready, according to the service’s top acquisition official.

“Launch is foundational to our ability to deliver critical capabilities to orbit, and we need the commercial launch industry ready to meet the growing demand” for national security satellites, Frank Calvelli, the Air Force’s assistant secretary for space acquisition, said in a prepared statement Wednesday to a House Armed Services panel.