Last month's SpaceX Falcon 9 failure broke the company's otherwise stellar safety record. Although some worry that rivals could capitalize on the accident, the US Air Force said it won't lose out on its certification to launch military satellites.
"The Falcon 9 Launch System remains certified and has demonstrated 18 successful missions, three of which met the requirements of the certification plan," head of the USAF Space and Missile systems Center, Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves said in an e-mail picked up by DoD Buzz.
As the website noted, SpaceX's certification effectively ended the Lockheed Martin and Boeing's monopoly, via their United Launch Alliance joint venture, in launching national-security payloads under the USAF's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
The Falcon 9 rocket that exploded two minutes after launching from Cape Canaveral, Fla. was on its way to the International Space Station for a resupply mission. But NASA has already assured the public that the astronauts still have enough supplies onboard.
Despite the SpaceX Falcon 9 failure, said to be have been the result of a faulty strut, the company will still be able to bid on the Air Force's upcoming GPS III communications satellite launch.
"The Air Force released the Draft GPS RFP May 13, 2015, and has been receiving industry feedback. The Final RFP release is planned for July 2015. This anomaly does not change the plan or timeline," Greaves said.
Apart from the Air Force, NASA also reaffirmed its support for SpaceX. Analysts are also confident the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company will be able to recover from the rocket blast.
"With continued backing from two big government agencies, SpaceX will now be given a second chance to prove it's a safe bet to carry America's 'billion dollar satellites' into orbit," Motley Fool said.
Until then, CEO Elon Musk said his company will treat the SpaceX Falcon 9 failure as "an important lesson" as it continues its investigation into the matter.
