historical development of this launch vehicle clearly shows how the French strategy was unravelled in a transparent way between a logic of community federation
through ESA and the maintenance of national strategic leadership.
Meanwhile, the US had reorganized its industry around two big corporations,
Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which marketed their launchers at lower commercial prices as they made high profit margins from the Pentagon’s lucrative contracts. Quite soon, they had reached an annual turnover of $11 billion. During the
2014 Ukrainian Crisis, the stability of the American-Russian space partnership
was at risk, as the Russian Prime Minister threatened to block the supply of
RD180
29
engines to Lockheed Martin as a reaction to the US threat of sanctions
for Moscow’s alleged interference in Ukrainian policies. After the fall of the Berlin
Wall, Lockheed Martin had selected the Russian NPO Energomash to supply the
very powerful rocket engine RD-180 for its new Atlas IIAR space launch vehicle,
to be used largely for launching military satellites. So when Gen. William Shelton,
Commander of the Air Force Space Command,
30
stated before the Senate that a
block of Russian supplies would have led to dangerous delays in the launch of
military satellites and caused $2 billion in extra budget and serious implications
for the national security,
31
Congress immediately approved all necessary funds to
build a brand new engine to replace the Russian one.
32
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, other new players began to emerge. In
2002, the 31-year-old Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk founded SpaceX.
33
In
pursuit of his dream to colonize other planets, Musk designed and built an innovative reusable launcher, the Falcon 9. By using reliable standard kerosene engines,
concentrating all production in a single plant and exploiting the latest microelectronics and software technologies, SpaceX built a rocket that could be recovered and
reused many times. The concept of a rocket landing back after take-off seemed like
science fiction, but Musk made it technologically feasible. By landing the Falcon 9’s
first stage on retractable metal legs after each take-off, SpaceX could recover the
nine precious motors and use them again, drastically reducing the launch prices.
It worked. In the beginning, Musk was supported by the Pentagon, which
allowed SpaceX to use a military base in the Marshall Islands to launch the first
Falcon 1 rockets. NASA now relies on Falcon 9 rockets to carry astronauts and
cargo to the ISS.
As seen, space launchers and geopolitics are deeply linked, even if this is not
explicitly stated by each country.
29
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1405/13rogozin/#.VYP8cREw_IU.
30
https://www.afspc.af.mil/.
31
http://aviationweek.com/awin-only/shelton-recent-events-call-rd-180-supply-question.
32
http://spacenews.com/u-s-air-force-outlines-first-steps-in-rd-180-replacement-effort/.
33
https://www.spacex.com/human-spaceflight/mars/.
32 Rocket Science: Globalization and Missiles
through ESA and the maintenance of national strategic leadership.
Meanwhile, the US had reorganized its industry around two big corporations,
Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which marketed their launchers at lower commercial prices as they made high profit margins from the Pentagon’s lucrative contracts. Quite soon, they had reached an annual turnover of $11 billion. During the
2014 Ukrainian Crisis, the stability of the American-Russian space partnership
was at risk, as the Russian Prime Minister threatened to block the supply of
RD180
29
engines to Lockheed Martin as a reaction to the US threat of sanctions
for Moscow’s alleged interference in Ukrainian policies. After the fall of the Berlin
Wall, Lockheed Martin had selected the Russian NPO Energomash to supply the
very powerful rocket engine RD-180 for its new Atlas IIAR space launch vehicle,
to be used largely for launching military satellites. So when Gen. William Shelton,
Commander of the Air Force Space Command,
30
stated before the Senate that a
block of Russian supplies would have led to dangerous delays in the launch of
military satellites and caused $2 billion in extra budget and serious implications
for the national security,
31
Congress immediately approved all necessary funds to
build a brand new engine to replace the Russian one.
32
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, other new players began to emerge. In
2002, the 31-year-old Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk founded SpaceX.
33
In
pursuit of his dream to colonize other planets, Musk designed and built an innovative reusable launcher, the Falcon 9. By using reliable standard kerosene engines,
concentrating all production in a single plant and exploiting the latest microelectronics and software technologies, SpaceX built a rocket that could be recovered and
reused many times. The concept of a rocket landing back after take-off seemed like
science fiction, but Musk made it technologically feasible. By landing the Falcon 9’s
first stage on retractable metal legs after each take-off, SpaceX could recover the
nine precious motors and use them again, drastically reducing the launch prices.
It worked. In the beginning, Musk was supported by the Pentagon, which
allowed SpaceX to use a military base in the Marshall Islands to launch the first
Falcon 1 rockets. NASA now relies on Falcon 9 rockets to carry astronauts and
cargo to the ISS.
As seen, space launchers and geopolitics are deeply linked, even if this is not
explicitly stated by each country.
29
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1405/13rogozin/#.VYP8cREw_IU.
30
https://www.afspc.af.mil/.
31
http://aviationweek.com/awin-only/shelton-recent-events-call-rd-180-supply-question.
32
http://spacenews.com/u-s-air-force-outlines-first-steps-in-rd-180-replacement-effort/.
33
https://www.spacex.com/human-spaceflight/mars/.
32 Rocket Science: Globalization and Missiles