This is John Batchel, a conversation with my good colleague, Bob Zimmerman, behind the black,

about the military contracts going to private space.

ULA has a rocket called Vulcan, a booster, that is not successfully tested.

Blue Origin has a rocket, a booster, New Glenn, not successfully tested.

SpaceX not only has successfully tested, but is operational to launch into low Earth orbit.

Constantly.

Bob here explains what that means in terms of competition and also the military, looking to the future.

Three companies, one launching routinely and the other two, not yet.

What is to be done? More of this tonight.

The military, once again, because Vulcan, both Vulcan and New Glenn from Blue Origin have not really not become operational yet,

and Blue Glen hasn't even launched.

The military wants them operational.

So it's giving them some contracts.

The key to remember is just this week, the military gave a major contractor SpaceX for eight future launches.

Didn't give any of those launches to ULA or Blue Origin, and it said the reason was that they

can't, that they basically told us they don't trust ULA and Blue Origin to launch on time.

So they're giving it to the reliable company.

So this military is not being foolish here.

But, you know, once again, you're right.

We need to get other companies competing or companies compete.

These companies competing with competitive numbers.

We do.

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