A large U.S. spy satellite was successfully launched into orbit Saturday from central California as concerns mounted that the continued government shutdown threatens to disrupt launch plans for future commercial, civilian and potentially even military payloads.
The Delta IV rocket carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office satellite blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 11:10 a.m. local time, with the 1.6-million-pound rocket’s main engines performing as expected and the upper stage igniting about six minutes into the flight. The rocket was supplied to the Air Force by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.
Originally scheduled for early December, the mission was the 11th launch of the most powerful and expensive variant of the Delta IV rocket, a version many lawmakers and Pentagon planners are eager to replace with less-expensive options. But Air Force and ULA officials have said they plan to rely on the heavy-lift model possibly late into the next decade, or until alternative boosters are developed, flight tested and proven to be equally reliable.
In the days leading up to the launch, satellite and rocket industry officials raised concerns that the prolonged furlough of federal employee could negatively affect missions slated to depart from launchpads run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other spaceports.
The Air Force and the rest of the armed forces aren’t affected by the current budget dispute, but military launches require civilian licenses and other government approvals that could be caught up in the current partial shutdown.
Lockheed Martin has warned in a regulatory filing that the budget standoff threatens the launch of a commercial satellite for a Saudi Arabian client. Lockheed Martin needs government approval for a Russian-owned cargo jet to fly satellites from California to Florida for launch. The company also indicated the timetable for some planned military launches later this year could slip.
The partial shutdown already has affected at least one rocket startup, Exos Aerospace Systems & Technologies Inc., which earlier this month was forced to postpone a scheduled launch of its Sarge rocket from a New Mexico site. Federal Aviation Administration officials weren’t available to handle changes to the Texas-based company’s launch license.
Some industry officials also pointed to potential hurdles for other projects stemming from delays obtaining certain U.S. government export licenses.
Other experts said the long-awaited initial launch of a commercial crew capsule by Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. could slip from mid-February partly due to government staffing issues. The demonstration mission, without any astronauts on board, would mark a milestone for NASA’s efforts to resume launching American crews on U.S.-built rockets and spacecraft for the first time since the 2011 retirement of the space shuttle fleet.
The SpaceX rocket is slated to take off from a NASA pad at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA’s furlough plans include keeping employees on the job, without pay, to support “space launch processing,” protect human life and property and, among other things, continue progress on SpaceX’s demonstration mission.
NASA has indicated its current plans entail proceeding with the SpaceX mission without changes.
But industry officials said it is too early to tell whether NASA can adequately support the February mission, including conducting final technical reviews. Local news reports have indicated that only a small portion of Kennedy Space Center employees are exempt from the shutdown and remain on the job.
SpaceX has said it is monitoring the impact of the furloughs on its manifest of other commercial launches. NASA has said it is working with SpaceX to complete “hardware testing and joint reviews” to prepare for a launch of the unmanned crew capsule “no earlier than February.”
—Doug Cameron contributed to this article.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com
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