WASHINGTON — The secretary of the Air Force is "disappointed" that SpaceX was not certified for military space launch before the end of 2014, but remains confident the company will meet the requirements set forth from the service.
"I'm disappointed that it didn't happen at the end of December, but to me, it is not a question of 'if,' it is a question of 'when' [certification] will happen," Deborah Lee James told an audience at the Atlantic Council Wednesday.
SpaceX is attempting to become the first company to break the monopoly on military space launch held by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), whose Atlas V and Delta IV vehicles provide transport to military satellites under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.
The upstart company is proposing that the service use its Falcon-9 configuration, but hopes to be certified on other configurations in the future.
To do so, SpaceX has had to work through a complex, long certification process. Company CEO Elon Musk has complained that the process is byzantine and slow, going so far as to suggest members of the Air Force are purposefully sabotaging the process to give ULA a leg up.
Both company and service officials spent 2014 aiming to wrap certification up by the end of that year, but the Air Force announced Jan. 9 that it was now targeting a mid-year completion date.
James acknowledged that the process has been slow, but defended the need for the Air Force to take its time and make sure everything is as it should be before it entrusts vital billion-dollar systems to SpaceX's care.
"I'm always looking to speed up any process I come across," James said. "But there is criteria that is laid out in writing that the Air Force signed up to, and SpaceX signed up to. Eighty percent of what needed to happen, did happen by the end of December, but there is still 20 percent left to go and this is real engineering process. This is real stuff."
"I am big time in favor of competition," she continued. "Everyone I know in the Air Force is big time in favor of competition, and the team has been working hard to try and get SpaceX certified as quickly as possible."
While defending the service's process, James noted that she is tasking a team of independent auditors to look at the process and see if there are ways to speed it up for future entrants.
"I would like some independent advice, a fresh set of eyes and ears, to look at this process," James said. "We now have about a year and a half under our belt doing it with SpaceX. What did we learn in that year-and-a-half timeframe? Are there ways to streamline? Let's look at how NASA does this, the best practices from commercial launch. What can we learn?"
The secretary indicated she is was open to whatever the results of that panel were, whether it involves changing the process or keeping it as is.
Email: amehta@defensenews.com.
Twitter: @AaronMehta
Aaron Mehta was deputy editor and senior Pentagon correspondent for Defense News, covering policy, strategy and acquisition at the highest levels of the Defense Department and its international partners.
