SpaceX has secured $714 million in new Pentagon contracts for a series of critical U.S. military launches, strengthening its role as the U.S. government’s preferred launch provider for national security missions through 2027 (via Breaking Defense).
According to an announcement from the U.S. Space Systems Command last week, SpaceX has been awarded five of seven launch assignments under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 2 program. United Launch Alliance (ULA), the Boeing–Lockheed Martin joint venture, received the remaining two missions valued at $428 million. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, meanwhile, was not awarded any launches under this round, as its New Glenn rocket still awaits military certification.
SpaceX’s five new missions include USSF-206, carrying the twelfth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS-12) encrypted military communications satellite built by Boeing, along with three classified Space Force payloads — USSF-155, USSF-149, and USSF-63 — and NROL-86, a reconnaissance mission for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Each mission will contribute to maintaining secure military communications and surveillance capabilities in orbit.
ULA will handle the NROL-88 and USSF-88 missions, including the launch of a GPS IIIF satellite aimed at upgrading the military’s global positioning network. The Space Force said these new contracts, assigned two years in advance, will begin launching in fiscal 2027.
The new $714 million in awards underscores SpaceX’s dominance in the national defense sector, despite political scrutiny earlier this year. In July, reports surfaced that the Trump administration wanted to significantly reduce federal contracts with SpaceX and launched an extensive review, but quickly determined that most were too critical to national security to eliminate.
Just last month, SpaceX successfully launched the NROL-48 mission for the U.S. NRO aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from California, delivering another classified payload to orbit. With the company now overseeing five of the Space Force’s latest missions, SpaceX’s foothold in U.S. defense operations continues to grow — further solidifying its status as the Pentagon’s go-to launch partner for high-priority missions.
