Dick Durbin: “I wish to address an issue of vital importance to America's national security. It is the issue of reliable rocket…”

“I wish to address an issue of vital importance to America's national security. It is the issue of reliable rocket launches--launches which the Department of Defense and the national intelligence agencies count on on a regular basis to launch satellites to keep America safe. There is a separate area of launches with NASA involving the civilian side, but this morning I want to focus primarily on the Department of Defense rocket launches. We made a decision about 10 years ago that was wrong. Two companies that were competing at that time, Boeing and Lockheed, came forward to the Federal Government and said: We have a plan. Instead of our companies competing, we will join together. We will become one company--Boeing and Lockheed--for this purpose, under the term United Launch Alliance. They argued, convincingly at the time, that this was the best way to come up with affordable, reliable launches. Well, that was true for half of the projection. They were reliable. In the last 10 years, the United Launch Alliance has been a reliable partner with the Department of Defense in launching satellites and other things into space which are critical for our national security. But, unfortunately, because they became a monopoly, with no competition, they became increasingly more expensive and we had no place to turn. Recently, there have been new entries in this market in terms of launching satellites. One of the most promising is SpaceX.…”