Lockheed Martin buys up to 58 launches from missile builder ABL Space

Rocket builder ABL Space has signed a long-term multi-launch agreement with Lockheed Martin, agreeing to offer the defense giant up to 58 missiles by the end of the decade.

Lockheed Martin will buy up to 26 ABL RS1 missiles by 2025, with an option for up to 32 additional launches by 2029, ABL announced Monday.

“Having this secured access to space will accelerate our ability to demonstrate the spacecraft and associated cargo technologies we develop to meet the future mission needs of our customers,” Lockheed Martin Space Vice President Rick Ambrose said in a statement. of press.

ABL’s RS1 rocket is in the middle of the launch market, between Rocket Lab’s small Electron and SpaceX’s large Falcon 9 vehicle. The RS1 has a height of almost 90 feet and is designed to launch up to 1,350 kg (almost 1½ tons) of payload into low Earth orbit.

Lockheed Martin’s venture capital is one of ABL’s first investors, the company has so far raised about $ 220 million in private equity – most coming in a round from T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Management last month for a valuation of $ 1.3 billion.

ABL declined to comment on the financial terms of the contract. Based on ABL’s $ 12 million price for an RS1 rocket, the deal with Lockheed Martin is estimated at nearly $ 700 million over eight years, assuming the maximum number of launches.

In particular, because ABL missiles use a mobile ground system called the GS0 that can be packaged in several shipping containers, Lockheed Martin can use a variety of launch facilities around the world – including US Space Force facilities at Vandenberg in California and Cape Canaveral in Florida.

While the defense giant did not specify what missions it intends to launch with ABL missiles, Lockheed Martin previously announced in February that it had selected ABL to launch a mission in Scotland in 2022. In addition, Lockheed Martin signed a strategic partnership last month. with the satellite start-up Omnispace, the latter company planning to launch a constellation of satellites to build a 5G communications network in space.

The big contract is a coup for ABL in the medium lift segment of the launch market, where the company competes with Virgin Orbit, by Richard Branson, which arrived in orbit a few months ago.

Other competitors in that arena include Relativity Space and Firefly Aerospace, which aim to launch for the first time later this year. Meanwhile, Rocket Lab is developing a medium-range rocket called the Neutron, which it expects to launch by 2024.

ABL continues to work for its inaugural RS1 launch in Vandenberg.

While ABL had previously hoped to be ready in March, President Dan Piemont said the company was looking to “prepare for the flight by June”. The missile maker recently completed tests to accept the first RS1 fuel tank, but Piedmont said ABL expects the necessary regulatory approvals at the launch site to delay the first launch attempt until the third quarter of this year.