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Air Force launches $250M reusable booster initiative

A new $250 million U.S. Air Force program to develop a reusable booster system for space flights has been launched from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Air Vehicles Directorate, which is based at Wright-Patt, issued the request for proposals on Monday.

Officials anticipate awarding up to three contracts for the project, where winners would compete for individual tasks of experiments and demonstrations that address technology, processes and other attributes of a reusable booster system, or RBS.

Air Force officials envision an RBS that includes a reusable rocket and an expendable upper stage rocket. The reusable rocket would be launched vertically and return, landing aircraft style on a runway, after carrying the space craft to a point where the expendable rocket could take over.

While there are not any Dayton-area businesses expected to land a prime contract role on the program, some local companies are expected to vie for subcontract work.

The deadline for proposals is May 19.

News surrounding rocket boosters has heated up recently.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that United Launch Alliance, the Colorado-based launch-services joint venture of Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and Lockheed Martin Corp.(NYSE: LMT), will work with XCOR Aerospace Inc. on the development of lower-cost rocket booster engines.

The report said ULA plans to join with Mojave, Calif.-based XCOR to develop a new upper-stage engine for ULA’s Delta IV and Atlas 5 launchers.

ULA and XCOR, a privately held rocket-engine and spaceflight-development company, have partnered before on a variety of projects.

E-mail jcogliano@bizjournals.com. Call (937) 528-4424. Twitter.com/joecogDBJ