U.S. Space Force Adds New Startups as It Cuts Reliance on SpaceX

The $5.6 Billion Is a Competition License, Not Revenue Awarded

The Space Force added two companies to a launch pool, a decision that did three things at once. It broadened the national-security launch base for the third year running, using a routine annual on-rampThe mechanism that reopens the launch contract each year to add newly qualified providers to the pool. as an industrial-base instrument. It admitted a company that owns no rocket, only the stage that maneuvers a payload to its final orbit, as a launch prime for the first time in the program's history. And it handed two venture-backed companies, one founded by SpaceX's first employee and propulsion lead, Tom Mueller, and one now run by former Google chief Eric Schmidt, a national-security launch position. The through-line, that a deliberate concentration bet, a redefinition of launch, and a capital event are one event, is an analytical judgment, not a claim the Space Force has made.

• The Award. On July 7, 2026, per the Department of War contracts notice, Impulse Space (Redondo Beach, California; contract FA8811-26-D-B001) and Relativity Federal (Long Beach, California; FA8811-26-D-B002) were awarded multiple-award, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQAn indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, a vehicle that sets a shared ceiling and lets the government order work later through task orders.) contracts with a maximum cumulative ceiling of $5.6 billion for NSSLNational Security Space Launch, the Space Force program that buys launches for military and intelligence satellites. Phase 3 Lane 1. The acquisition was competitive with three offers received, and $10 million in fiscal 2026 space-procurement funds was obligated at award. Space Systems Command, Space Access, Los Angeles Air Force Base is the contracting activity.
• The Money, Precisely. State the money as $10 million total ($5 million each) against a $5.6 billion ceiling. Per the Space Systems Command (SSC) release, Impulse and Relativity will each receive a $5 million firm-fixed-price task order to conduct an initial capabilities assessment and develop their approach to tailored mission assurance. That is a study order, not a launch order, so the $5.6 billion is a competition license the pool shares, not revenue awarded to these two firms.
• The On-Ramp Arc. This is the third annual on-ramp in a row, and the pool went from three to five to seven. SSC and CRS confirm the sequence: Blue Origin, SpaceX and ULA were the inaugural Lane 1 providers (FY24); Rocket Lab and Stoke Space were added (FY25, March 2025); Impulse and Relativity were added July 7, 2026 (FY26). A deliberate, repeatable base-broadening, not a one-off buy.
• The Statute Behind It. The assured-access mandate is 10 U.S.C. 2273, which sets U.S. policy to maintain at least two launch vehicles able to deliver any national-security payload. Congress pushed for more: the Senate Appropriations report S.Rept. 118-204 encouraged the Space Force to include a greater diversity of providers and more competition in Phase 3. SSC calls NSSL the single largest procurement activity in the U.S. Space Force and manages a $15.6 billion annual space-acquisition budget.
• The Capability Isn't Flying Yet. The vehicle Impulse brings to NSSL is Helios, a high-energy orbital-transfer stage that is largely unflown, with first flight targeted 2027 (slipped from an earlier 2026 goal); its Deneb engine (LOX/methane, oxygen-rich staged combustion) has not flown. Impulse's real flight heritage is the smaller Mira tug. Relativity's NSSL vehicle, the Terran R rocket, is also pre-first-flight. Lane 1's qualification bar, a completed launch or a credible plan to do one, is doing real work here.