The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] reported Saturday that the Pentagon has decided to give its seal of approval to the United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that would merge the EELV operations of the two companies. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) still has to sign off on the merger, a process that could take several more weeks, although according to the WSJ it is expected to follow the Pentagon’s recommendation. One open question is what conditions, if any, the government will impose on the ULA, which could make the difference regarding whether the ULA “could cross a new threshold to monopoly,” the article notes. Also still outstanding is a lawsuit by SpaceX seeking to block the merger.
I, for one, wish SpaceX luck (though I opposed their law suit against Kistler and am uncomfortable with their readiness to go to court when they have yet to demonstrate a working rocket). I see nothing good, and a lot bad, in the combination of our two medium-class launch suppliers.
— Donald
Don,
I’d agree with you if SpaceX was going to court to get a shot at a launch in 6 months, but the ULA monopoly extends to 2011 (?) while the Falcon 9 may be ready as soon as late 2007. I can totally understand why Musk doesn’t want the 9 rusting away for 4 years.
In any case, the ULA is bad practice anyway (in my opinion) and its to the shame of the Pentagon to back it. As much as I think the “military-industrial complex” is mostly a paranoid delusion, its hard to deny its existence when the DOD bends over backward to satisfy Block-Mart