The El Segundo, Ca., satellite plant makes large satellites for commercial, government and military customers. In 2018 Boeing acquired Millennium Space Systems, which is also based in El Segundo and has received defense contracts for satellites to detect new threats such as hypersonic missiles.
Blue Origin is flying its own hardware as a payload. Even though it doesn’t have a paying customer, a successful flight would mark the first of two required certification flights needed by the U.S. Space Force so it could potentially be awarded lucrative future national security missions alongside SpaceX and ULA.
A SpaceX Starlink launch on Wednesday tied the 2023 record, which saw a combination of 68 launches from SpaceX, three from United Launch Alliance and one from Relativity Space, from pads at either Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
