Although it took millions of dollars, some heated words and even a court case, Elon Musk's SpaceX has finally earned the right to launch satellites for the Pentagon. The Air Force announced that SpaceX has completed and won certification from the Pentagon after a long certification process.
With the announcement, Musk and his company can now begin to take on United Launch Alliance, the space company that is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Until now, the ULA has enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the satellite launching business.
Last year, Elon Musk and SpaceX took the Air Force to court saying that the company should be able to compete against the ULA. Eventually, SpaceX and the Air Force settled the suit, and the Air Force then pledged to work closely with the company to get it certified so it could compete for contracts to send military satellite and other national security payloads into space.
Winning this right to compete was one of the latest in a series of victories for SpaceX, which became the first commercial space company to resupply the International Space Station for NASA and last year earned a contract to begin shuttling astronauts to and from the station by 2017.
With the Pentagon as a second customer, the company could continue to see impressive growth while continuing to grow its experience which could play a major part in its plans to one day send humans to Mars.
In a statement, Musk called in an "important step," and thanked the Air Force saying it looks "forward to serving it well."
"SpaceX's emergence as a viable commercial launch provider provides the opportunity to compete launch services for the first time in almost a decade," said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James. "Ultimately, leveraging of the commercial space market drives down cost to the American taxpayer and improves our military's resiliency".
SpaceX's first opportunity to compete against ULA could come as early as June, when the Air Force is expected to release a request for proposals to launch a new GPS satellite.
ULA has been preparing for this day, however, hiring a new CEO, Tory Bruno, who is working to transform the company.
"We welcome today's announcement and look forward to competing with SpaceX and other new entrants," ULA said in a statement. "The fact is, we could not be more passionate and proud of our work, our people and our record of success."
In order to certify SpaceX, the Air Force said it spent more than $60 million that included three flight demonstrations and reams of technical data to ensure that the Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX could be trusted with these very crucial and expensive payloads.
