The US Department of defense has selected its two main rocket companies for getting satellites into orbit in the years ahead. United launch Alliance (ULA) and SpaceX will receive 60 percent of the department’s satellite launch contracts. Spacex will get 40 % of the agency’s satellite contract.

The two companies beat out rivals Northrop Grumman and blue origin to launch missions between fiscal years 2022 and 2027. Each individual launch can cost over $ 100 million.

Col. Robert bongiovi, director of the space and missile systems center launch enterprise, said in a statement that this was an’extremely tough decision’. I appreciate the hard work industry completed to adapt their commercial launch systems to affordably and reliably meet our more stressing national security requirements,’ he said.

In 2018, it awarded ULA, Northrop Grumman, and blue origin a combined $ 2 billion in contracts to develop next-generation rockets. Since then, the DoD has been trying to phase out its reliance on Russian technology.

Spacex sued the government over the contract in 2019. The company argued the award gave competitors a leg up in getting awarded the launches.