SpaceX’s plan to retire its Falcon 9 rocket is rattling the Space Force, Politico reports, because the Pentagon has no ready replacement for the workhorse that carries most of its military satellites.
The company is phasing out the Falcon 9 to make way for Starship, the far larger vehicle SpaceX says will be more efficient and profitable. The problem: many military satellites are not designed to fit Starship, leaving a gap between what the Pentagon flies today and what SpaceX will fly tomorrow.
SpaceX accounted for 85 percent of U.S. launches in 2025, Politico reports, making it by far the dominant player in the rocket business and indispensable to the military. That dependence sharpens the question of how national security payloads keep flying through the transition.
The Space Force is now working through how to protect its launch capacity as the Falcon 9 heads for retirement, Politico reports.
Source: Political Wire
