Why Doesn't Air Force Use Cheap, Reusable Rockets? | DoD Buzz: The Pentagon is more focused on the supremacy of U.S. satellite technology than how the spacecraft are vaulted into space, at least for now, an official said.
That’s one of the reasons military hasn’t yet bought into reusable rocket technology that some experts say could save the department significant cash.
During an event Monday hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, Douglas Loverro, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, was asked how the department might encourage the Air Force to move forward with innovative, reusable rocket technology, instead of the service launching rockets every few months on an expendable — and expensive — vehicle.
“I don’t know that I would call it a problem. I would call it a condition that we have right now,” Loverro said. “That condition is predicated on the fact that we haven’t found an economic use in military space yet for responsive reusable launch.”
Commercial companies have already proved the concept of reusable rockets. Jeff Bezos’ private spaceflight company, Blue Origin, this year relaunched, reignited and touched down rockets multiple times. SpaceX was the first to pioneer the concept of rocket reusability when in 2015 it returned to Earth a rocket that delivered a payload to orbit.
Yet while the Air Force this year signed a deal with the California-based company headed by Elon Musk, it hasn’t stipulated using reusable launchers to deploy national security payloads.
And part of the reason is because of risk.
